This will be the only “best of” list I have for 2017. Last year I managed lists for metal, electronic music, as well as “other genres”. This year, I have an extra-long metal list, but I did not listen to enough of anything else to make lists, really.

It’s not clear to me what made me exceptionally receptive to extreme music in 2017, virtually to the complete exclusion of everything else. In personal terms, it was a good year. Not much to complain about, and some good progression in the work life has set up 2018 to see some of the logjam of life “to-dos” get un-jammed and moving forward.

In terms of my perspective of the outside world, however, 2017 exceeded my most pessimistic expectations, even as I entered the year rebuking “thank god 2016 is over” sentiments. I recognized worse was to come, but I did not comprehend just how many distasteful, ignorant, and inhospitable things our country had in store. It has been heartbreaking to watch otherwise intelligent people turn off all critical thinking and embrace a world view that is mean-spirited at best, and open hatred at its worst. It is crushing to see people adopt bumper sticker slogans in place of critical thought, and the abject abandonment of intellectual honesty in the name of tribalism.

So, yeah, I guess I can see why I felt an unusually strong need for cathartic release.

Best Metal Album of 2017

Woe - Hope Attrition

No album will symbolize 2017 for me like Hope Attrition. In a year of turmoil, unrest, and disbelief at the breakdown of social and political norms, Hope Attrition brilliantly (and often pointedly and directly) expresses the resentment and disgust at fascism’s crawl out of the shadows.

And it does it with some of the most captivating riffs and melodies I have heard on an extreme metal album, bar none. The bookending tracks, “Unending Call of Woe” and “Abject in Defeat” stand as pillars of the form, and nearly threaten to overshadow the rest of the album. Fortunately, the middle of the album holds its own, particularly “The Ones We Lost” and “Drown Us With Greatness”, the latter clearly inspired by a certain red capped movement.

Chris Grigg’s dynamic vocals are expressive and emotive, and are the element that takes the music beyond just sounding angry and into more complex emotions: frustration, contravention, disbelief, resignation, and defiance. And while Grigg is center stage as vocalist and lead guitar, attention also must be given to drummer Lev Weinstein (of Krallice and so many other bands that, in December, he actually performed a marathon night drumming for 5 different bands, including Woe, called “Levizalooza”.) Weinstein propels the charges forward, then deftly resets the pace in sudden tempo shifts.

Even without the backdrop of the current social landscape, Hope Attrition would be an incredible and impactful album. With it, it’s Album of the Year.

and i relent to power
and i relent to fear
and i relent to every force
that tramples without care
and i regret the meaning
ascribed to every life
the loss compounds completely
abject in defeat

The Rest of the Best

Primitive Man - Caustic

'Caustic' is Out Now on CD/2xLP/CS/Digital
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Denver’s nihilistic trio PRIMITIVE MAN return with Caustic, their second full-length offering of soul-crushing blackened doom and noise-ridden claustrophobia. Recorded and produced at Flatline Audio by Dave Otero (Cobalt, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation), Caustic is 12 songs and 75+ minutes of bloodcurdling howls, abysmal tones and dense, unsettling feedback spewing forth a cesspool of utter misery. With lyrical themes ranging from political corruption, personal struggle and the crumbling social climate facing the world today, Caustic serves as a cataclysmic soundtrack for a world gone awry.
Official Links:
Primitive Man Official Website: https://primitivemandoom.com/
Primitive Man on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/primitivemandoom
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Primitive Man on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primitivemandoom/
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Lyrics:
Cold
Shackled to
The bottom
Of the bottle
Of the socio economic slavery
That rules
And runs my life
Combust
Let smoke fill my lungs
Taught lies
Work to ruin
Infected with poverty
Left in the gutter
Over worked
Under paid
From a system meant to fail us
Nothing left
But to hang our hopes out to try
Hell comes home
From the time clock to the death bed
When death grips your hands
And kisses them goodbye
Remember
None of your work days mattered
A lifetime spent tonguing
The asshole of all your superiors
Nothing is real
But the inevitability of your cold fucking death
And your heart being ripped from your chest
Placed into the cavity of another worker bee
Another fucking wage slave
Paycheck to paycheck
Your essence is dead but slavery is forever

Oh Jesus. This album is pure human misery distilled into 75 minutes of music. Caustic is probably the most aptly named album ever. It’s intense and suffocating, and perfectly content to slowly gut-punch you repeatedly over its lengthy run time. It does not offer the kind of artful release from someone like YOB, it does not sound like a tribal force of nature being conjured like Neurosis. It sounds like Hell, like you’ve walked through a door and into a nebulous formless place with incessant, indiscriminate howls, unidentifiable as anything but raw misery.

As a rabid fan of this kind of music, this is one of those sorts of releases that makes me step back and ask myself, “should I be enjoying this so much?” That I find this sort of torturous assault so aesthetically pleasing is disturbing in its own right.

Nothing is real
but the inevitability of your cold fucking death
and your heart being ripped from your chest
placed into the cavity of another worker bee
another fucking wage slave
paycheck to paycheck
your essence is dead but slavery is forever

I didn’t discover Celeste until earlier this year, and their (at the time) most recent album, 2013’s Animale(s), would be my Album of the Year if it had released in 2017. So, since I did not put Infidèle(s) as Album of the Year, does that mean I think it’s a lesser album? I don’t think I do believe that. Rather, I think my ranking is more a function of hearing this after having absorbed two very similar albums in the months prior (Animale(s) as well as 2010’s Morte(s) Née(s)).

“Similar” is an appropriate word, because Celeste is not a band with a huge amount of range. They are, however, distinct, not easily mistooken for anyone else. They play a ferocious brand of blackened sludge, easily among the very heaviest and most intense albums on this list. The guitar tones are abrasive and dissonant, the tremolo picking creating a persistent howl, over which the raging vocals pierce and stab at the listener.

Celeste are masters at gnawing at the listener with rapid-fire blast beats and those searing vocals, and then dropping the vocals and dialing back the drum tempo for instrumental stretches which are still wall-of-sound loud, but feel like absolute relief in comparison. The back-and-forth pattern of abuse and rest pretty much defines the structure of a typical Celeste album, this one included. It’s a challenging, exhausting listen, not something put on in the background. But the beatings are delightful.

Despite the relentless and punishing nature of the band’s sound, it’s the amount of melody that they work in that pushes their work into a special class. Woven through the blankets of sound are sneaky hooks that call out through the noise. This is very much in line with their lyrical content, which although generally lost on me due to being completely French (so much for high school language class), reviews and translated readings have revealed that their themes trend towards real-world themes of sorrow and abuse survival, with faint strands of hope that shine through the misery. Morte(s) Née(s) was a concept album about the kind of abuse women are subjected to in modern society, while Animale(s) was a “bleak story of a boy and a girl, a kind of love story with a tragic ending”, quoting the band’s Bandcamp page. Infidèle(s) does not seem to be a concept album like those two, but explores similar themes in a more individual manner.

This group has rocketed up onto my list of favorite bands, and this album should be on a lot more year-end lists than it is.

Progenie Terrestre Pura - oltreLuna

This is an incredible album, and I do not for the life of me understand why this album has not earned more attention. PTP blend progressive and industrial metal with atmospheric black metal flourishes. The mix is a unique sound of metal instrumentation interwoven with electronics that shape and color the sound, rather than existing as separate elements. The album deftly moves between brilliant sequences of progressive riffs, grindy blast-beat sections, calmed atmospheric lulls, and back again.

The atmospherics bring to mind some of the things Bear McCreary did on the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack, with flute, didgeridoo, female vocals, and hand drum sections building up to an explosion back into the main event.

One of the real stars here is the pristine production that is packed with detail. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t garnered more attention in a genre that seems to think sounding like you’re playing inside of a tin can is a virtue. Actually, it seems more likely that it’s just because the album is in Italian, and the English language coverage of it has been relatively limited.

The most mind-bending, brain-breaking album in a year full of challenging avant-garde metal. Kwintessens is a staggering, swirling, disorienting ride. The riffs come from every direction, angular and dissonant, simultaneously memorable and incomprehensible. For an album with so many twists and turns, it’s shocking just how cohesive it is. The dark, hazy sonic palette serves as the backbone from which the winding sonic excursions spring. This is truly one of the most meticulously crafted albums of the year, and it is completely captivating for its entire 41 minute runtime.

This is what will start the cure
Man’s wisdom, either through god’s revelation,
or through the service of the angels and the spirits,
or through the sharpness and the depth of understanding

Ufomammut - 8

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Prior to the album's release, the trio delight fans with an early extract from the record in the form of a video for the song "Warsheep"
The band describe their intentions of the video..."it is inspired by the lyrics of the song which in itself is a play on the words "Worship". The protagonist takes a symbolic journey from the natural human condition to the trappings of the dogmas of society, religion etc. The principle idea being that thought is blind and is caged into the illusion of being free." Adding to the video's eerie atmosphere, the setting is in an abandoned villa in Italy, and the surrounding woodland.

In a year where Electric Wizard came out and disappointed (scroll down), Ufomammut was there to step in with an especially fuzzy, filthy version of their psychedelic stoner doom. Whereas their last (brilliant) album, Ecate, leaned in a spacier direction, 8 comes down to earth and ratchets up the power an extra notch.

The album is deceptively complex. Fuzzy doom metal isn’t usually the home of tricky time signature changes, but Ufomammut takes their fuzzed-out guitar chugging and throws things off-kilter with some unexpected changes, adding an additional disorienting factor to the blanketing haze.

This is also perhaps Ufomammut’s best songwriting to date. As delightful as Ufomammut’s chugging has always been, and still is here, the melodies and compositions change up and take left turns a bit sooner than on previous efforts, avoiding staying locked into the same general patterns for as long as they might have in the past.

All the thoughts I have are wandering
All the things I see are so unreal
All I ever touch just disappear
All feelings are crumbling in my maze

That band name though. This was a great year for avant-garde death and black metal in the Gorguts and Deathspell Omega traditions. Ingurgitating Oblivion is very hard to describe, outside of saying that fans of Gorguts and similar bands must check it out. It’s heavy, atonal, and odd, but never gets lost in its own oddness. The rhythm section is just amazing - this is some of the most amazing drumming you’re gonna hear on a metal album all year. And woven throughout all of the brain-bending left turns and buildups are some surprisingly sticky melodies. I’d like to rave about the album, but I lack the words to describe it. At first glance, it’s simply another (great) angular technical death metal album, but it opens up so much as you dive deeper into it.

King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

KING WOMAN - "Deny" (Official Music Video)
From the new album 'Created in the Image of Suffering,' out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records.
Order Here: http://bit.ly/KingWoman
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Official Links:
King Woman on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KNGWMN/
King Woman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kngwmn/
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Lyrics:
I know the spirit
Etiquette
I'd wash your feet with
My dirty hair
Jesus I love you
With all my heart
But I feel like an angel
I'm lacking the star
I'm lacking the spirit
I'm losing the heart
I'm lacking the spirit
I pray my mother
Won't you ever find a cure?
Throw back odd pill
Find euphoria I once knew
Am I so dulled down?
Am I a whitewashed wall?
So dirty on
The inside?
I know the spirit
Etiquette
I'd wash your feet with
My dirty hair
And you know I love you
With all my heart
But I feel like an angel
I'm lacking the star
I pray my mother
Won't you ever find a cure?
Throw back odd pill
Find euphoria I once knew
Am I so dulled down?
Am I a whitewashed wall?
So dirty on
The inside?
I pray my mother won't you ever find a cure?
Throw back odd pill find euphoria I once
Am I so dulled down?
Am I a whitewashed wall?
So dirty on
The inside?

Created in the Image of Suffering is vocalist Kristina Esfandiari’s takedown of her Coptic Christian cult-like upbringing. Far from a rebuke of religion in general, though, Esfandiari’s sights seem set on hypocritical practitioners, and trying to make sense of her treatment within that environment. The lyrics are deeply personal, and the vocals evoke the dulled pain of a survivor reflecting on their past trauma.

The instruments here largely create a thick haze, shoegazey take on doom. The riffs are occasionally powerful but rarely crushing, opting instead to paint an ethereal soundscape for Esfandiari’s vocals to call out from behind. The effect it creates is like the aural version of the desaturated “flashback” scenes in a movie - some of the details lost to time, but the gist of it still clear as day.

Also, unrelated to this album, but Esfandiari took stage with Thou earlier this year, and helped them kick off their set with a cover of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way”, and it just makes me wish for a whole album of Esfandiari singing Cobain’s most mumbley Nirvana songs.

I wish somebody would have told me
Cuz the past you can’t get back
Feels like somebody wore me
There’s a deliverance I lack

I can’t remember everything
You break the bread you drink the wine
You were a bad man
You break the bread you drink the wine

Fister / CHRCH - Split

CHRCH’s Unanswered Hymns was one of my absolute favorite albums of 2015. It was an immensely thick, sludgy take on doom, splashing around the same mucky pool as obvious influence Bell Witch. In lieu of a new album (make one already!), here we get a split with kindred spirits Fister, each group contributing a single 16+ minute track to the collaboration. CHRCH’s track feels like a direct continuation of the work on Unanswered Hymns: tension builds and releases between crushing wall of sound segments and quieter funeral passages, and vocalist Eva Rose’s tortured shrieks giving the whole thing an edge.

But whereas CHRCH exhibits a bit of artfulness that shines through the ugliness, Fister steps in and amplifies the bludgeoning with a howling, unforgiving dirge. Vocalist Kenny Snarzyk sets the tone here - whereas CHRCH’s Eva deploys her shrieks tactically, Snarzyk makes his the central bricks of the band’s wall of sound. The assault lasts the first 7 minutes of the 20 minute track, before a frenetic psychedelic section gives way to quiet, hypnotic guitar picking that eventually builds back up to a second Snarzyk vocal pummeling that closes out the track.

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Chelsea Wolfe's "Spun" from the album "Hiss Spun" released September 22, 2017 on Sargent House.
Chelsea Wolfe on tour - http://chelseawolfe.net/shows
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/CWHissSpun_iTunes
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/CWHissSpun_Spotify
US CD/LP Store: https://www.hellomerch.com/collections/chelsea-wolfe
UK & EU CD/LP Store: http://sargenthouse.awesomedistro.com...
Bandcamp: http://chelseawolfe.bandcamp.com
http://chelseawolfe.net
http://facebook.com/cchelseawwolfe
http://twitter.com/cchelseawwolfe
http://instagram.com/cchelseawwolfe
http://sargenthouse.com/chelsea-wolfe
VIDEO CREDITS:
Directed by Chelsea Wolfe
Editing / light design: Ben Chisholm
Dancer: Felicia Drake // sedusastudio.com
Clothing: Jenni Hensler costume design, Micol Ragni (boots, coat)
DSTM Makeup: Kelly Carmichael
Hair: Sarah Scherer
Special thanks to Jessica Brown, Lance Jackman, Ella Cross, and On The Y for letting us fuck around in your limo!
Spun lyrics:
I LIFT MY EYES, I SLOW MY GAIT
AND I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN
YOU LEAVE ME RESTLESS, YOU LEAVE ME HUNG
YOU LEAVE ME COILED
YOU LEAVE ME SPUN
AWAKEN IN A TANGLE OF WIRE
I SLEPT DESPERATE, TRYING TO REACH YOU
YOU LEAVE ME RECKLESS, YOU LEAVE ME SICK
I DESTROY MYSELF AND THEN I WANT IT AGAIN
SPUN
HEAVY LOVE
COILED AND SPUN
A BRUTE, AN ANGEL, AND A MADWOMAN
A MOST ELEGANT IMPEDIMENT
WAS THERE FROM THE START
WAITING AND REPEATING WITHIN ME
WAITING AND REPEATING
MY PROBLEM IS THEIR DOWNTHROW AND UPHEAVAL
AND MY ENQUIRY IS AS TO THEIR WORKING
AND MY EFFORT IS THEIR SELF-EXPRESSION
BUT I WAS ONLY ROCK, DUST, WATER AND ICE
AND ANIMAL INSTINCTS ALL ALONG
THE HYPEROSMIA AND THE BASE SENSE
THE PRODROME AND THE AURA
THE SHADOWS AND THE SLEEP DEPRIVATION
THE TRICHOMES AND THE DELIRIANTS
CUT THROUGH THE FEAR CONDITIONING
TO FINALLY UNDERSTAND
IT WAS ALL AND EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
AND ALL AND EVERYTHING OR NOTHING..
//
Ben Chisholm: guitar, bass
Troy Van Leeuwen: lead guitar
Chelsea Wolfe: vocals
Jess Gowrie: drums

Chelsea Wolfe got on my radar with her previous album, Abyss, but nothing she’s done before holds a candle to Hiss Spun. Wolfe occupies a sonic area that straddles boundaries between doom metal, goth, industrial, shoegaze, and dream-pop, without ever staking a flag in any one’s territory. Her recent albums have moved the needle slightly more in the doom metal direction, coinciding with her finding a larger audience in that corner of the music world. That said, album opener “Spun” could go right onto My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless”. The third track “Vex” is the one that grabbed me first, even before the guest vocals from Aaron Turner came in (and instantly made me wish for an entire collaboration album between the two).

At its core, the music is simple, uncomplicated. But it is so expertly crafted that simple things like a slight change in Wolfe’s vocal tone reverberates through the song. Most importantly, though it sounds like music that takes from a lot of identifiable influences, it doesn’t sound like music you’ve listened to before. It never fails to surprise.

Bereft - Lands

Order here: http://smarturl.it/BEREFT13
BEREFT weave elements of doom and black metal into exhaustive, dynamic songs, creating their own style of powerful metal, unbound to any genre and fully conscious of the impression.

Bereft brings forth the kind of grand, cavernous doom that you might expect from someone like Inter Arma, while sprinkling in some blast-beat black metal excursions to kick the tempo up and keep things from getting bogged down. Not that the album necessarily needs the high tempo changeups, as the spacious, exploratory doom is never really in danger of outstaying its welcome. But the changeups are welcome in that they are brilliantly executed and surprisingly seamless, and give Bereft their own unique fingerprint of the genre they inhabit.

Amenra - Mass VI

Amenra "Children Of The Eye"
Director: Wim Reygaert
DOP: Maximiliaan Dierickx
Sculptures: Isabelle De Vos
Art Direction: Najib De Brackenier
Styling: Isabelle De Vos
Edit: Wim Reygaert
Colour grading: Maximiliaan Dierickx
"Children of the eye"
MASS VI
Preorder now on
http://consouling.be/release/mass-vi
Lyrics:
no one ever will leave me behind.I cast no shadow. light is too profound.I am the way. All stars align. a new reign. uncrowned. with wounds adorned, we stand in line. river of blood leads to the shrine.hand in hand, side by side. we look our gods dead in the eye. shaved for burial. soul lost inside. anoint my skin, nothing to hide. I take the first step in the funeral pyre. a fire upon me. reside in me. I am the cold. the barren tree. reside in me.I am the fire no one can oversee. truth fire. not unto me. one tear at a time, you are a threat to mine. flood trenches. dredge remnants of my past. wash away my longing for me to be the last. come rain, wash us all away. here come the first wave, nothing will remain. forever more. no more. too cold to drown in. the deep. allowed in. no more.
Recorded and mixed by Billy Anderson
Mastered by Justin Weiss
www.ritualofra.com
www.facebook.com/churchofra
www.churchofra.com

This is the kind of album I would have been even more into when bands like Neurosis and ISIS were introducing me to the word of extreme metal - at least, if I were ready for the falsetto vocals at that time. Post-metal was my way in, and this album brings me back to those early discoveries.

As it is, it still is one of my favorites of the year, a deeply affecting album. It’s massive sounding, creating a thick atmosphere that I just want to wrap myself inside of. It builds and builds over the album’s 41 minutes, making it hard to listen to in chunks.

Whereas Primitive Man evokes a sense of neverending misery, Amenra brings forth a sense of looking into oblivion, into nothingness. It brings to mind prayers and rituals going unanswered, doubts about what is really waiting on the other side. The ending seconds of the album, in which the wall of sound sharply gives way to silence, is heart-dropping.

In terms of the basic elements, anyone that has listened to Amenra before, or even the post-metal bands that inspired them, won’t find anything shocking here. But it is an amazing execution of that subgenre, filtered through Amenra’s trademark spiritual bent.

with wounds adorned, we stand in line
river of blood leads to the shrine
hand in hand, side by side
we look our gods dead in the eye

Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon

Artificial Brain - "Absorbing Black Ignition"
Sound
Produced by Colin Marston & Artificial Brain
Recorded and Engineered by Colin Marston at
Menegroth : The Thousand Caves, In Queens NY.
Video
Director - Tim Mearini
Additional Models - Nick Govacko
Links
profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/labyrinth-constellation
facebook.com/ArtificialBrainMusic
timmearini.com/
artstation.com/artist/crashmgn
Lyrics
Gemini – twin of two extremes
Symmetry – polarized at the seam
The side of dirt – an animal ignited
The side of the vacuum – existing in psychic
“Flesh is just mud, until tempered with fire
Heaving balance, a dimension of fibers”
Summoning energy, twins of darkness and light
Grey equation, charged with blackness beyond nights
“Soil, water, light – temples of the flesh which channel seas of urge.”
Gemini – twin of two extremes
Symmetry – polarized at the seam
“Flesh is just mud, until tempered with fire
Heaving balance, a dimension of fibers”

A sci-fi dystopian concept album. Thankfully, one that goes about it in a very different way than The Astonishing. Here, Artificial Brain’s avant-garde death metal evokes bleak landscapes littered with mechanical refuse. In an interview with Noisey, vocalist Will Smith states that he grew up as a huge fan of the Terminator movies, and that clearly informs the tone here. It’s a very direct album - whereas many of the other avant-garde albums on this list lean towards longer pieces, Infrared Horizon features briefer, snappier tracks which nevertheless maintain a very consistent tone throughout, creating a steady album flow. Still, the shorter song lengths make the end result different than an album of 10-20 minute tracks.

Bell Witch builds on their minimalistic sonic palette (bass, drums, vocals) and adds in - nope, still not guitar - a Hammond organ. Dylan Desmond’s 6-string bass work has to be heard. It doesn’t sink in at first that it’s not a guitar,

The 83-minute single track album is lengthy, but Bell Witch doesn’t go for “epic”. This is pensive, meditative, personal. It may drone but it rarely turns into an “atmospheric” piece. Rather, it remains firmly rooted in a very human sadness as it patiently descends deeper into its aural abyss. In a way, this is like the yin to Primitive Man’s yang.

This was absolutely one of the hardest albums to absorb this year. Not that it the journey wasn’t enjoyable, because it was. But this dense, chaotic, angular assault comes from every direction, and changes its heading so frequently that it can be very difficult to get a foothold. It relly resembles a free jazz album being played by a death metal band. If the term “post-rock” was coined to mean non-rock music played using rock sounds and instruments, then it makes sense when people call Pyrrhon “post-death”, as this is a band taking death metal’s vocabulary, deconstructing it, and using it to make something very different from an old-school death metal album. That said, death metal isn’t the only subgenre being pulled from, as there’s clearly a good bit of grindcore and crust punk flowing into the maelstrom here too.

The production is a big part of what makes this album work. Lesser producing efforts could easily have reduced this into indeciperable mud. Instead, each instrument is clear and distinct, and are neither compressed into oblivion nor polished to a shimmer.

It takes quite a few spins to start to figure this one out, but it’s worth it.

He chants the happy victim’s creed:
“Let distraction succor me
and polish all my edges down
‘til I am smooth and blank as stone
to better fill my given role

Make me what I am
Make me the servant I was born to be""

Ex Eye - Ex Eye

EX EYE - "Xenolith; The Anvil" (Official Music Video)
'Ex Eye' is out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records
Order Here: http://bit.ly/Ex-Eye
Subscribe to Relapse Records Channel: http://bit.ly/RelapseYouTube
Directed by Derrick Belcham
Order on Bandcamp: https://exeyeband.bandcamp.com
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Official Links:
Ex Eye on Bandcamp: http://exeyeband.bandcamp.com
Ex Eye on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ExEye
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Debut album from EX EYE, the instrumental, post-everything quartet led by renowned saxophonist Colin Stetson and featuring the otherworldly drumming of Greg Fox. EX EYE seamlessly weave between precise, clockwork intricacy and aggressive, ecstatic abandon while taking the listener on a cathartic, thrilling journey to total transcendence. Recorded live at EX EYE member Shahzad Ismaily's Figure 8 Studios in Brooklyn, NY (Blonde Redhead, Damien Rice, Okkervil River, Son Lux, Pussy Riot), the self-titled debut showcases a band that is without question the sum of its parts, as each player contributes not only their own particular technical prowess and expertise but also their signature compositional character. EX EYE make incredibly complex yet beautifully dramatic and emotive music which eclipses usual expectation of style or genre and is sure to be talked about for many years to come.

Saxophone in any non-jazz context has an incredibly high cheese factor potential. Good when you’re recording a solo for a Richard Marx single, less good in a “serious” album. In Colin Stetson’s hands, however, the saxophone becomes the backbone of an incredible instrumental avant-garde metal album.

The interplay between the baritone sax, guitar, electronics, and Greg Fox’s full body drumming has to be heard to be believed, and is so unique that it does not invite easy comparison. The album is simultaneously agile and impossibly dense. The band creates staggering walls of noise, but with a constant motion that propels the listener forward rather than consumes them. The album is just full of sudden sharp turns. After listening to dense screeches, the band will put its foot in the ground and instantly pivot, and suddenly you’re riding this steady groove and don’t even know when it happened.

It doesn’t sound like anything else in the genre. The CD and digital releases include a 12 minute bonus track which should not be missed (sorry vinyl buyers).

Dvne - Asheran

Video by Louis Macera, Just-Aurèle Meissonnier and Paul Thomas.
Taken from DVNE's new album, Asheran. LP and Digital available for pre-order here:
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Just when it seems like Elder are the clear owners of their niche, a band comes from out of left field to challenge that crown. Dvne (ie. “dune”, spelled in trve kvlt fashion to sidestep any legal entanglement over the name) come along with their debut full-length and, quite frankly, outshine Elder, even as Elder releases their arguably best work. Dvne brings the same progressive stoner metal sensibilities to the table, with equally nimble and frequent lead sequences dancing over the top. But Dvne’s style is such that it will take right turns into harsher, sludgier waters than Elder tends to, with death vocals popping in for accentuation here and there (though not enough that it should turn away anyone whose preferences don’t include harsh vocals).

There’s a lot of Dune-with-a-U inspired sci-fi in the lyrics (which form a concept album of sorts, though I’m not particularly inclined to try and unpack it all), but there’s none of that community-theater-in-music-form that a band like Dream Theater has sunken to. Instead, you can safely ignore any storyline and simply let the absurd number of killer riffs just wash over you for an hour.

For resolution, our time revolves in dark corners
Through exploration, our time revolves
The unseen path
For resolution

Loss - Horizonless

Taken from the album "Horizonless" out May 19, 2017.
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All Grows On Tears
When all the stones are thrown
Intentions revealed and secrets known
With wounds inflicted and regrets seeds sewn
Guilty roots deepen and left alone.
I’ve sunken to that place again
Where the sun only throws shadows
And the stars have all burned out…
Bury me in a lonely place
And plant thorns on my grave
I wonder as to what nourishment those roots must be suckling from that tomb?
I’ve sunken to that place again
Where the sun only throws shadows
In shame, bleeding
Bleeding... Cursed and left a failure
And the stars …the stars have all burned out…
When I leave the trees will shed gold
The winds will stand silent and the sun will go to sleep
Unease is important now…. chewing at me
What if the nightmares wont stop and I have nowhere to go?
We are only as sick as out secrets
So let the quiet put things where they're supposed to be

Depressing and heavy. Those are the only words that seem to fit Loss’s brand of funeral doom. Calling it funeral doom might be slightly misleading, as it sounds less like a funeral procession, and more like the inside of a depressed mind as they lay in bed: angered, saddened, lethargic, and too drained to move a muscle in response to any of it.

For such an album, Horizonless is surprisingly melodic. Guitar lines that you can easily imagine being played at a faster pace by an Iron Maiden-influenced band dote the otherwise desolate aural landscape. The vocal growls often go so low that they sound like they’re burrowing under the ground, but a collection of guest vocals also provide tonal contrast.

I love the absolute crap out of the first half of this album. I like the rest of it, but the first half has stuck with me since the first day I listened to it.

Junius is what we might call a metal band now, but in their previous two albums, they were much more of an art-rock group. This album sees the band embrace the heaviest of their material, make it even heavier, and crank up the goth while they’re at it, to establish a new alternative/goth/post-metal sound that was barely hinted at in their previous work.

The material here stands quite in contrast to most of the rest of this list. None of the tracks are particularly long, with only the last one breaking 6 minutes. Many of these songs would be perfectly at home on an alternative rock radio station. Artists like Tool and Katatonia would be the closest comparisons, both of whom I do like, so perhaps it should not be quite so surprising. Yet I was still blindsided by just how much this resonated with me. The Depeche Mode-like vocals over the thick post-metal guitar tones put to alternative metal song structures just works on every level.

my soul is worn
i’ve been here many times before
i need to breach this place
i’m bound to tempt the fates
i’m marching ‘till they know my name

Krallice - Loüm

The first of two albums Krallice released in the last quarter of the year. Loüm finds the group in collaboration with Dave Edwardson, bassist and (third) vocalist for Neurosis. Here he takes the lead on vocals, synths, and lyrics.

Like any Krallice album, there’s a ton to absorb here. The band departed from its atmospheric shoegaze-y black metal on 2015’s Ygg Hurr in favor of a more chaotic, kaleidoscopic style, which continued through 2016’s Prelapsarian and into this album. The wildcard on this one is Edwardson, whose presence tethers the sometimes aloof compositions and brings them back down to earth, then kicks them into gear with a hard driving hardcore sensibility - relatively speaking, of course, because this is still Krallice at some of their most technical and spastic.

The genius of Krallice is how they consumed subgenres into a unique style of their own. Ostensibly identified as a black metal band, based in large part to their early releases, the band has evolved the elements of black metal, and now increasingly death metal, into a sound that cannot in good conscience be labeled as either. Whereas the chaotic sounds of a band like Pyrrhon still exhibit strongly identifiable markers of death metal, Krallice’s dialect of these vocabularies have morphed into a language much less easily traced back to its origin. As lazy as a phrase like “Krallice sounds like Krallice” would be, it would also be accurate.

Little man is rank mankind
Common people’s worthless lives

Little man, you’re useless to me
I hate you, you have no value
Here to serve the likes of me

Businesses built on your backs and your toil
Fills the pockets of those with hands too good to touch the soil

Krallice - Go Be Forgotten

If Loüm is Krallice continuing to distance themselves from the kind of atmospheric stylings that the band’s earlier work was known for, Go Be Forgotten is a reintroduction of those elements into their approach. Along the way, their Borg-like stylistic assimilation swings around to grab ‘70s space-prog and '80s synths this time, again morphing and reinventing those elements to make them conformant to the “Krallice” sound.

The chaotic, mind-bending attacks are still present here, but rather than dominating the album completely, they give way to atmospherics, and even a drum-less 7 ½ minute ambient space-rock piece 2/3rds of the way through the album.

This is probably the “easiest” Krallice album of the past few years, and should appeal to fans who were turned off by their hard pivot into more aggressive chaos since Ygg Hurr.

I didn’t listen to this until I was almost done making this list, and it quickly wormed its way on. The two things that come to mind with this album are the use of field recordings, and the absolutely killer black metal riffs that bored their way directly into my core.

Field recordings have always been something I’ve found neat. I’ve been a fan of the Sublime Frequencies label for some time, especially their “Radio” series. I never thought I would hear field recordings featured in a black metal album, but here they’re used as interstitials to separate the different songs.

But what really defines this album for me is just how many of the angular guitar melodies stuck with me after only a few listens. There’s just so many great, memorable, dramatic parts, and the way the compositions bounce back and forth between melodic riffs and straight-up assaults, before giving way to the atmospheric parts layered with those field recordings at the end, is extremely enjoyable.

The day’s lung held full
shrillness in the heated grass
collapsing on his hunting stool
seed shells like a radiance
the oligarch flanks his tent
salted thistle in his throat

There’s a number of non-tech, non-avant-garde death metal albums that I listened to this year that didn’t really stick with me (hi, Necrot!). But one that really did was Immolation’s Atonement. The songwriting here really stuck out to me from the first time I listened to the album. The songs here eschew some of the speed the group explored on recent albums, opting instead for more measured, mid-tempo pacings. It works, extremely well, as they’ve got an incredible collection of riffs, and give them the room to breathe and make their impact.

There’s nothing here that death metal hasn’t seen before. But at a time when a lot of old school death bands seem to be churning out sub-par material and still getting attention for it, Immolation is putting out some of the most expertly crafted work they’ve ever done. Call them the Tom Brady of death metal.

isolate us from one another
contempt for the unknown
hatred tears us apart
foster the great divide

Boris’s “Pink” anniversary tour, in which they performed that album in its entirety each night, reignited the group’s interest in the kind of sludgey doom/psych that has been at the heart of most of the group’s best releases, turning away from the more drone/ambient work that has comprised much of the band’s recent work. At the same time, they also incorporate their more “indie pop” songwriting that earned the band crossover attention starting with Pink and a number of following albums. The highlight as always is guitarist Wata, and the novelty of crushing waves of fuzz and distortion being produced by a tiny 4-foot-tall* Japanese woman is one that has never gotten old.

This is far and away the best Boris effort since, well, probably Pink.

(*: an exaggeration, but only very slightly. Seriously, I walked by her at the Psycho Las Vegas pool this year, and could not believe how short she really is)

Big‡Brave - Ardor

BIG|BRAVE's new album ARDOR out now from Southern Lord Records.
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Ardor is the second album from Montreal-based drone metal band Big‡Brave. Though they’ve toured with Sunn O))), their brand of drone metal isn’t nearly so domineering or impenetrable. Rather, they sound more like a Constellation Records artist (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion) than a typical drone metal act. Unsurprising, perhaps, given that that label is ground zero for Montreal-based instrumental-heavy indie bands.

The sound here is rather minimal and even somewhat inviting, as far as drone goes. Rather than endless drones creating a wall of noise, Big‡Brave uses a lot of space. Their musical phrases tend to incorporate pauses, both for allowing room to breathe as well as creating some off-kilter stop-and-start sequences. It makes for a very different take on “drone” than artists who hold an endless note for 20 minutes.

The trio’s drum and dual guitars (no bass) are joined by one of those Constellation artists, violinst Jessica Moss (Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra). Moss’s violin sections, both soft and screeching, add a much-needed element to the group’s sonic mix. Robin Wattie’s yelping, piercing vocals, however, are the group’s defining element (and most polarizing). Bjork is the most immediate comparison for Wattie’s strained vocal timbre, and the tightrope they walk between emoting ecstacy and distress. For me, they are absolutely enchanting, as is the whole band’s work on this record.

and it’s not OK
and I do mind
calling you out
every single goddamn time

Self-released on Bandcamp way back in April 2016, this was picked up by label MVKA and put into print in early 2017, which is when I came into contact with it. This absolutely amazing project crosses slave spirituals with black metal and electronic experimentations. The result is a wholly unique sounding album that presents itself like twisted gospel sung on a plantation, except instead of praising Jesus, the songs carry more nefarious sensibilities.

This sort of genre crossing could have been horrible. It could have been so on-the-nose that it was just a charicature of its influences. Instead, it is so subtlely well done, and a large part of that comes from not being slavishly (sorry) faithful to the album’s core concept. If this was just a straight run of 9 spiritual-sounding black metal songs, it would not be nearly as effective. Instead, the definition of “black metal” used here is kept loose, and a third of the album are pieces that deconstruct the various elements and recombines them into tracks that resemble sound experiments more so than songs. These break up the album nicely, and make it more exciting when it swings back to the straightforward tracks.

I don’t have enough good words for this album. It is far and away one of the most amazing, effecting products of heavy music in 2017, even if it’s technically from 2016.

he gon' forgive my sins (devil is kind)
he promise many things (devil is fine)
i can’t do him no wrong (devil is kind)
i see him before long (devil is fine)

This is another album that was self-released in 2016, then picked up by a label in 2017. In this one’s case, it was The Ocean’s label Pelagic Records that re-released it for worldwide distribution in February.

It’s purely instrumental post-metal, not unlike a darker, more dramatic Russian Circles. The use of strings builds the atmosphere, with tracks like “Locrus” bringing to mind those early Godspeed You! Black Emperor,releases. Here, though, these pieces serve to break up the crunchy guitar assault that dominates the rest of the album.

This one is super under the radar. The group is Brazilian, and I’ve only seen a couple of English language reviews covering the album. Being entirely instrumental, there’s no language barrier to pierce in the music itself, but the fact that the band’s touring has been limited to their home country and a brief stint through central and eastern Europe (largely excluding the English-speaking countries) has done no favors to the group’s profile in America, the UK, or Scandinavia.

Which is too bad, because this should be the group’s breakthrough release. After having put out 8 other releases over their 11 year career (mostly splits and EPs, only one full-length), they went out and got famed sludge/doom producer Billy Anderson to fly out to their Sao Paolo based studio to record this one, and finally gained the attention of a label. Hopefully at some point they will tour some more and get their name out there.

This one got onto my list early in the year, and just hung around. This album of atmospheric post-black metal revolves around HP Lovecraft’s mythology. The specifics are lost on me, as I have only the most casual of knowledge of Cthulhu, but the themes of an ancient elder god, sunken city, cultist worship, and a looming threat of return are simple enough to follow. The Great Old Ones endeavor to create the sense of scale and madness in musical form, and the really lay down that atmosphere fantastically. The intro to “The Ritual” is a perfect example, with droning guitar wails over church organ, evoking a twisted cultist ceremony within a dark, dilapidated church.

There are brief spoken-word segments which I could do without, but they’re brief. The rest of the time, we’re treated to great black metal riffing with some surprisingly active drumming. The biggest letdown is the overall production, which is more stifled and veiled than it should be. It’s not album killing, but giving the elements here some room to breathe would have made a difference.

Strange sculptures still stand
Ungodly forms in front of me
The remains of a cult which was banned
The cult of Dagon, lord of the sea
The Shadow over Innsmouth!

Elder - Reflections of a Floating World

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Staving off Truth · Elder
Reflections of a Floating World
℗ 2017 Armageddon Shop
Released on: 2017-06-02
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Elder picks up where they left off with 2015’s Lore and further refine their spacey stoner/prog metal blend. As is their established style, Elder lays down a foundation of fuzzy guitar, and then layers a steady dose of nimble, melodic leads over the top, resulting in an album that is both extremely accessible as well as deeply fulfilling, with plenty of surprise and detail to feast on. Elder brings a greater sonic palette to the table this time around, with two guest musicians joining the trio in studio to add additional guitar and keys to the mix.

Running through the fields
Down the ones you think you need
Throwing off the chains, cursing years in vain
Living in a myth, the boundaries of which lie in decay
The body seeks to convalesce
The earth we deem it’s own redress

Altarage - Endinghent

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Altarage hails from Spain and plays thick, noisy blackened death metal. Comparisons to Portal are often made, and are pretty accurate. The guitars create a mucky, compressed wall of noise, as they alternate between tremolo-picked freakouts and heavy death riffs. Vocals are growled from further back in the mix, usually just holding one or two words at a time, as these songs seem to have about 10 words in them on average.

The oppressive atmosphere is well established (with sickening, tar-like guitar tones), but much like the Immolation and Yellow Eyes albums listed above, this one earned an extra amount of time in my rotation thanks to a number of songs that stuck with me. The driving blast-beat sections give way to some excellent death metal riffing that crawls out of that tar and makes itself heard.

(As I’ve said, these are men of few words. The words below are the entirety of the lyrics to the 6-minute opening song, “Incessant Magma”. Pretty much every song is like this.)

Planning for Burial - Below the House

Below the House is a doomgaze album that very much evokes the kind of snow-blanketed scenes depicted on the album’s cover. It alternates between shoegaze drone like Jesu (circa Conqueror), as well as the icy slowcore of a band like Low - but all coming from more of a doom metal-y perspective. Vocals alternate between blackened wails and shoegazey indie rock dude singing. The alternation between the harsher pieces and the slowcore keeps the noise from being overwhelming. Rather, it’s very much a melancholy affair.

It may be arguable just how “metal” this is, but on the whole, I’m going to keep it in the “doomgaze” category, which is metal enough to count.

This is the place I live
but it’s not my home
this is the place I live
my roots don’t grow

Luminous Vault - Charismata

This one slid under a lot of radars. A duo featuring modern classical composer Mario Diaz de Leon and the bassist from Artificial Brain, Samuel Smith, this EP is the group’s first “major” label debut (Profound Lore), having self-released another EP a couple of years ago. Not even sure how I stumbled on this other than it being on Profound Lore, as there are precious few reviews of it that come up in a Google search. On top of the Godflesh-inspired programmed drums belting out industrial thwak-s, de Leon and Smith grind out some great black and death metal riffs.

Usnea - Portals into Futility

'Portals Into Futility' Out Now on CD/2xLP/Digital
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Portland doom quartet USNEA return with their third full-length, Portals Into Futility. Inspired by dystopian science-fiction and the painful intersection of today's crushing reality, Portals Into Futility is 5 songs and 56 minutes of expertly crafted and elegantly depressive doom/sludge. With an evolved sound of strength and dynamism, USNEA delve more into the worlds of dissonant death metal, varied vocal structures and cinematic composition, all while maintaining the monumental heaviness, brutality, discord, anger, and mournful melodicism of their previous work. Across dark and brooding peaks and valleys, USNEA remind us that no matter how many doors are opened to the human species, our self-aggrandizement and hubris all lead to futility.
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Usnea is one of the many Portland-based doom metal bands to garner attention in recent years. I enjoyed their second album, 2014’s Random Cosmic Violence, as well as their live set at Psycho Las Vegas this year. On this album, the lyrics are inspired by (largely dystopian) sci-fi novels, of which the band provides a reading list: Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, Carl Sagan, Margaret Atwood, Philip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert. It’s a nice change in theme from the usual trappings of the genre.

The group’s sound has matured somewhat as well, as the group has embraced more death metal elements and varied vocal stylings, giving them a bit more range within which to work. The biggest downside is that it runs out of steam a bit in the final 20-minute long track. And despite a positive evolution of sound, it didn’t land quite as squarely for me as Random Cosmic Violence. That said, still a solid effort worth attention.

Impetuous Ritual - Blight Upon Martyred Sentience

This album begins with the creation of a aural whirling abyss by the guitars. It’s this all-encompassing rumble, sounding like what you might imagine a black hole to resemble - a fixed point in space of power and unfeeling consumption. It’s recognizable as guitar tones, but individual notes and chord strikes become imperceptibly blended together in this persistent, unflinching roar.

The first 7 and ¾ minute track is simply the establishment of this abyss, which essentially remains in place throughout the rest of the album, sitting there, whirling and roaring. Once the second track starts, the death metal kicks in, and these elements simply dance around the abyssal roar. Vocal growls and wailing guitar leads leap out to be heard, flashing for brief moments until falling into the abyss themselves.

Converge - The Dusk in Us

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"A Single Tear" by Converge from the album 'The Dusk In Us,' available now
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I have such a conflicted opinion of Converge. There’s no question you’re listening to masterful musicians, but the metalcore style and, frankly, some of the lyrical expressions both veer into “misunderstood 17-year-old at Hot Topic” territory.

Converge albums deceptively hide their brilliant bits under the surface, so what is always an underwhelming listen at first exposes itself more over time. Kurt Ballou’s guitar work is glorious, as is his production of the album (and everything else he produces). Some of these songs really get under your skin and worm their way past your mental barriers, even when the words sound more like an angsty high schooler’s poetry. (The “cannibals!” scream will never not be cringey, though. The one part of the album that I simply cannot get past.)

They’re also one of those bands where your opinion of them changes (in a positive way) after watching them live. Seeing their live show shouldn’t make the albums sound any differently, but it does. Seeing them at Psycho Las Vegas definitely improved my listening of their previous album, All We Love We Left Behind, and since I am seeing them again in a couple weeks, I don’t doubt that my opinion of The Dusk in Us is going to get a bump.

As a single teardrop fell
And was swallowed by the sea
You outshined the best there was
Rewrote who I could be
When I held you for the first time
I knew I had to survive

Heavy Blog really teed off on this album in their annual Music Jouralism’s Top 25 list, calling it “one of the most overrated metal albums of the year”, and “nothing more than tough guy metalcore that barely strays into any truly experimental territory.”

I think that’s too harsh. The overrated bit might be true, based on just how high that rating is. They’re right that seemingly every publication has pegged this as one of the top albums of the year, and some have been absolutely effusive with their praise.

But as someone whose take on metalcore is such that I’m permanently stuck in the “bargaining” phase of even embracing a band like Converge (“they’re not really metalcore… right? … Right?”), this album did not strike me as “tough guy metalcore”, but a more varied album that wove in and out of different subgenres, and never seemed to settle into any one style. “The Mud” is a good example, as it moves between metalcore and alternative metal to start, then an ambient interlude acts as a bridge with a largely instrumental second half that firmly channels Meshuggah. The album pulls in different influences from song to song, and the rotation of vocalists between the different tracks ensures that the next song doesn’t sound like the one you just listened to.

Like with Converge, there’s some cringe to some of the lyrics here (“This is real now, motherfucker!” is the “cannibals!” of this record). Originality might not be the album’s strongest suit, as it unabashedly pulls from influences that all congregate in that late ‘90s/early '00s time frame. And it definitely is overrated by the mainstream metal press. But it’s good.

You wanna see it through my eyes?
You don’t
You can’t feel it from the inside
You had the chance. You won’t

Goya - Harvester of Bongloads

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Misanthropy on High · Goya
Harvester of Bongloads
℗ 2017 Opoponax Records
Released on: 2017-03-03
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Goya’s subdomain for their URLs on both the merch site BigCartel and music selling site Bandcamp is simply “marijuana”. Stoner metal bands as a rule wear their love of reefer on their sleeve, and while Goya might not be among the many with “bong” in their name, they’ve finally worked it into an album title, and with a Metallica reference to boot. Goya has been prolific of late, and each new release has been an improvement to their formula. Bongloads keeps the pattern, easily being their new best. It’s thick, fuzzy stoner/doom that keeps a foot rooted strongly in psych rock.

misanthropy on high-a-day
no different from any other day
i sit and light the bong
i smoke this world away
i just sit here and waste away

Participation Ribbon

These are albums that aren’t necessarily on my “Best of” list, but that I wanted to talk about for some reason.

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

"Executioner's Tax (Swing of The Axe)" comes off the brand new Power Trip album "Nightmare Logic." With hooks and tightness rivaling greats like Pantera or Pentagram and production by the esteemed Arthur Rizk, "Nightmare Logic" punishes fans not only sonically but with pure songwriting skill. The sophomore release and second on Southern Lord Records, raises the bar and pushes Power Trip to new extremes.
"Executioner's Tax (Swing of The Axe)" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Director: Andy Capper
Director of Photography: Joel Pront
Editor: Andrew Betsch
Order "Nightmare Logic" Here:
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"Executioner's Tax (Swing of The Axe)"
Go on and look at you,
Today is your lucky day
The executioner’s here, and he’s ready to make you pay
You prayed for so long, and now you have your chance
The executioner’s here, and he’s sharpening his axe
Swing of the Axe
Cry all you want, but the blade soars today
Swing of the Axe
You buy in the for the privilege, to know what lies beyond
Death hides behind veiled faces
It only takes one swing, and you’re gone
The executioner,
The beginning and the end
He carries cold hard steel masked with the taste of medicine
Blessed with a reaper’s touch, his might cannot be matched
It’s time to pay the man, The Executioner’s Tax
Swing of the Axe
Swing at the World
Even a killer has to get paid
Swing of the Axe

OK, so I’m not the biggest thrash fan. But I enjoyed this album when it came out, and listened to it quite a bit. I had it penciled in for nothing less than an Honorable Mention all year.

But then, when I got around to finalizing the list, and listening to everything one last time… I found I just didn’t have a lot of desire to listen to this anymore. It was fun back in February, particularly as I was doing a lot of long drives up and down California for work, and it suited my mood for Highway 101 traffic.

But even having not listened to it for months, coming back to it, I found I remembered it all too well, as if I had listened to it all week long already. There wasn’t anything new to discover in revisiting it, just anthemic shouts that I felt like I was already tired of. I realize that’s basically criticizing the music for being exactly what it sets out to be, but I feel like I shouldn’t be this burnt out on it already.

That guitar tone is badass though. I can’t argue with that.

Last generation, an aberration
watching the whole world burn
we have no mouths and we must scream
the void welcomes us again

One of my bigger disappointments of the year. Pallbearer had me with their last album, 2014’s Foundations of Burden. But this time around… it doesn’t connect.

There’s obviously some good things here. The vocals are the best they’ve done. The production is pleasingly well done. There’s some memorable guitar lines that stick with you. It’s not particularly crushing or heavy, but Pallbearer was never one to live on doom metal’s harder edges.

Most of the compositions just feel meandering, and lacking in both power and expressiveness. It’s clearly not as heavy as Foundations of Burden, pulling in more of a Pink Floyd influence. But it also doesn’t embrace that kind of Floydian take on space/prog-rock fully either, so what’s left is plodding doom-lite guitars driving songs that never get around to going anywhere interesting. It feels like an album stuck in transition. It’s never unpleasant to listen to, but it never leaves much impression either.

Ignoring signs
We believed that we were blameless
Then the harm could not be undone
We hang ourselves
From any rope put here to save us
And seal our fate
Together
To die as one

After two exceedingly underwhelming albums, I stopped expecting Mastodon to deliver anything that would interest me. However, after they released the single “Sultan’s Curse” alongside the announcement of the new album, I thought, “hmm…. maybe”. The song itself wasn’t spectacular, but did at least hint at some return to the style within which they had produced more interesting material.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Far from a return to heavy and powerful, Emperor of Sand finds the band completing its migration into “crossover” territory, with limited success. Ironic for the band that as recently as 2014 was sniping at Dave Grohl for “making rock n roll safer”. Just three years later, Mastodon finds themself becoming what they claimed to dislike, because this album is filled with Foo Fighters-y dad-rock.

Surprisingly, the song on the album that I most care to listen to again is actually the most Foo Fighters-like of them all: “Show Yourself”. It’s very much “safe” rock and roll, and it was unquestionably recorded with an eye at sneaking into radio rotation (with some success, apparently, peaking at #16 on Billboard’s Rock Airplay chart, the band’s highest ranking single). But it’s extremely memorable and enjoyable, which is more than can be said of the material that follows it.

In the end, the album is disappointing in every aspect. It further confirms that the band that created albums like Leviathan is long gone, and even the band that created Crack the Skye seems to be beyond return. At the same time, they only really managed one track that succeeded in the more straightforward rock format that they’ve pivoted to. A collection of songs that lives up to “Show Yourself” would at least be a worthwhile dad-rock album. Sadly, we didn’t get that either. (I picked a song other than “Show Yourself” for the video above, as it’s more representative of how boring the album is.)

You’re not as safe as far as I can tell
And I can tell
Only you can save yourself
Soon this will all be a distant memory
Or could this dream
Be real at all?

Myrkur - Mareidt

'Mareridt' Out Now on CD/LP/DLX 2xLP/Digital
Order via Relapse Records Here: http://bit.ly/MyrkurMareridt
Subscribe to Relapse Records Channel: http://bit.ly/RelapseYouTube
Directed, Photographed, and Edited by Mats Ek.
Instagram: @matstxswe
Choir Girls:
Kari Kvittingen Djukastein, Amalie Hagesæter Gåsvær & Pernille Josefine Smit
Order on Bandcamp: http://myrkur.bandcamp.com
Order on iTunes: http://geni.us/MareridtiT
Order on Amazon: http://geni.us/MareridtAMZ
Order on Google Play: http://geni.us/MareridtGP
Mareridt (translation: Nightmare) is the highly anticipated sophomore full-length from renowned Danish composer and multi-instrumentalist MYRKUR. Recorded between Copenhagen and Seattle with producer Randall Dunn (Marissa Nadler, Earth, Sunn O))), Boris, Wolves In The Throne Room), Mareridt is a rich juxtaposition of the dark and the light; the moon and the mother earth; the witch and the saint. MYRKUR explores deeper into the mysterious and the feminine with 11 tracks that further progress her visionary blend of metal with gorgeous, stirring melodies, dark folk passages, choral arrangements and superb, horrific beauty. Further taking MYRKUR to new artistic heights are lyrics in multiple languages, an unforgettable collaboration with Chelsea Wolfe and an array of special instrumentation including violin, mandola, folk drums, nyckelharpa (an ancient Swedish key harp), and Kulning (an ancient Scandinavian herding call). Mareridt is a profound manifestation of nightmares that demonstrates MYRKUR as one of the truly exceptional artists of our time.
Official Links:
Myrkur Official Website: https://www.myrkurmusic.com/
Myrkur on Bandcamp: https://myrkur.bandcamp.com/
Myrkur on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/myrkurmyrkur
Myrkur on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrkurmyrkur/
http://www.relapse.com
http://www.facebook.com/relapserecords
http://www.relapserecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/relapserecords
https://www.instagram.com/relapserecords

The dislike (and sometimes outright hatred) of Myrkur among sections of the metal community is absurd. The oft-repeated claim that her work is “pop music posing as black metal”, and is “manufactured” for “album sales” is ridiculous enough to dismiss outright (black metal doesn’t exactly sell a lot of albums, and a “blonde girl” pop artist would make far more money selling, you know, pop records). And if that wasn’t enough, the numbers show that her album didn’t exactly sell like hotcakes, not that that’s going to satisfy the black metal truthers that are certain she’s making “poser” money.

That nonsense aside, I enjoyed her last album, and had high hopes for this one, but was let down. There are some good moments, particularly the track she shares with Chelsea Wolfe. Her vocals generally deliver, moving between screeches and breathy ethereal parts. But the sections where she channels Scandinavian folk music fail to make much impact, and the weakest material is right smack in the middle of the album (not counting a cringeworthy closing track that should just have been cut entirely). There’s about an EP worth of good material here, but the dispersion of it is such that the album stumbles and loses momentum as soon as it starts to go somewhere. Not bad, just not fully baked.

Am I adored?
Je suis votre amour
Am I a whore?
Cause you are the drug
Solitary are the things i know
In my garden they leave me alone

Sarin - Darker Lakes

Unlike most of the other albums in the Participation Ribbon section, I actually like this one. I listened to it quite a bit. It isn’t a special record that I had to have in my top 40 or so albums, but it’s an underrated one that I wanted to call out.

It’s good, largely instrumental post-metal, with influences worn on their sleeve. But a couple of aspects stand out. First is the contrast between the dark guitar-driven compositions and some of the uplifting synth-driven parts. The second is the clean production. Between those two things, it was an easy listen, and one I often put on in the car this year when I wasn’t necessarily in the mood for absolute punishment.

It isn’t going to win awards and it probably won’t appear on many year-end lists, but it’s an underrated album, and one that listeners who like this sort of music but want something that goes down a little easier should check out.

I don’t know, I listened to this again, and maybe I should have bumped it up into Honorable Mentions.

I feel like I should like this album. There are elements I like, and plenty of moments I like. The dual female vocalists, bringing both beautiful harmony and raspy black metal shrieks to the table, are winners. The folk elements, with flute and mandolin, contrast nicely with the progressive, doom-y metal. At any given moment, it sounds pretty great.

But actually sitting and listening to these four 10+ minute tracks is a bit unsatisfying. There’s a lack of direction, and those good moments seem to peter out and not take the songs anywhere. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ll listen to 60 minutes of atonal droning, but that’s not what Dreadnought is trying to be. The songs just sort of drift on, and I just end up drifting away while I’m listening.

I can see what people like, but it’s not getting me there.

(None of this album’s tracks are posted as YouTube videos that I could find, that video is as close as I could get.)

This is a cool one, which just missed my Honorable Mention list, but I think deserves to be called out regardless because it’s a debut album of a band that is onto something.

Black metal is everywhere, and there are lots of bands playing “blackened” versions of other subgenres of metal. But nobody’s really doing blackened prog-metal, at least not doing it quite like Asira. When I say prog-metal, I’m talking metal that is influenced by Pink Floyd, King Crimson, and other ‘70s symphonic rock bands. If that reminds you a bit of metal-era Opeth, that’s an apt comparison, as Opeth certainly comes to mind more than a few times during this album.

But then there’s that “blackened” part, and that’s where Asira adds a wrinkle that sets them apart. Just listen to the embedded track (the whole thing) to get an idea. Add in some Floyd-ian ambient/atmospheric sections, and some Opeth-like pastoral metal bits, and you’ll have an idea what the album sounds like.

What keeps it off my best-of list is that the entire album doesn’t live up to the peaks of songs like the one above. The band is clearly still figuring out their identity. It’s still a good album, but I am hoping for an even better successor.

Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard

Electric Wizard "See You In Hell" a short film (Directed By Marek Steven ) Witchfinder Productions, Witchfinder Records/Spinefarm Records 2017
Music video by Electric Wizard performing See You In Hell. (C) 2017 Spinefarm Records, a Universal Music Company
http://vevo.ly/Qye4HB

Ugh, I had such hopes for this. The last two things Jus Oborn has touched were Cough’s latest album, Still They Pray (as producer), and Wizard’s own most recent album before this one, Time to Die. Both had what I love about Electric Wizard in abundance: impossibly thick fuzz, grimy stoned out riffs, vocal wails and warbles… the stuff that made the Wiz great.

Instead, we get this album, which feels more like a slightly underground ‘70s rock album. The album opener “See You in Hell” is the boring low point, but it doesn’t really get off the launch pad after that either. The Sabbath worship is apparent, as it always has been, but this is less being inspired by Sabbath, and more trying to play a clone of what Sabbath was playing in 1970, without any of the heaviness modern recording permits. Thing is, Sabbath absolutely would have had a bigger, heavier sound if they had the tools for it in 1970 - and what they may have lacked in recording punch, they made up for instead in the riffs themselves. Wizard Bloody Wizard’s riffs never come close to measuring up, leaving the whole thing as a hopelessly tepid affair.

Time to Die was underrated, in part because legal issues with their former drummer saw the album pulled from shelves and from streaming services a few months after release. This meant a lot of listeners who didn’t get in on it at release time missed out, and many did not go back to it after the album quietly became available again, over a year later. If that group includes you, do yourself a favor, and go listen to that instead. It’s got way more of what you want. Here, I’m going to embed a track here for comparison. You listen and decide.

There’s a good album in here. I know there is. Other people can hear it. I can almost hear it.

But the reason I can’t hear it is the awful, awful production. To have an album this dynamic and record it like a shitty black metal band playing to a tape recorder in their garage is criminal. All I could do when listening to this was imagine what it should have sounded like.

Best Electronic Album of 2016

Ital Tek - Hollowed

Taken from Hollowed LP
https://italtek.bandcamp.com/album/hollowed
Video directed by Clayton Welham and Joseph Lion

I’ve been an Ital Tek fan since his debut, cYCLICAL. That was back when dubstep was the stuff of articles in Wire Magazine, before the wub-wub-wub stereotypes set in. Ital Tek’s dubstep and dance music experimentations never quite fit on the dance floor, though, referencing the club rather than stepping foot in one. But Hollowed finds Ital Tek starting off closer to ambient and drone music, bringing those dance music touch points in as echoes of echoes of the club. The constant remains Ital Tek’s thick, encompassing synth lines, the kind that just envelop you like a fog. There was little doubt that this would be my electronic album of the year once it dropped.

The Rest of the Best

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Perturbator "Sentient (feat. Hayley Stewart)" music video - directed and animated by Valenberg. UNCENSORED VERSION.
This is track number 8 on Perturbator's highly-awaited fourth album, "The Uncanny Valley." The album will be released on May 6th, 2016 through Finland/USA label Blood Music.
Co-written by Perturbator and Blood Music.
Produced by Blood Music.
https://www.facebook.com/Perturbator
https://www.facebook.com/mrvalenberg
https://www.facebook.com/BlooodMusic

The black metal guitarist turned cyberpunk synthwave electronic producer, Perturbator is best known by gamers for his contributions to the two Hotline Miami soundtracks. One of the leading names in the synthwave movement that is happening largely on Bandcamp, Peturbator brings a stronger sense of melody to his retro-terror. Drawing strongly from John Carpenter, classic 8-bit video games, Akira, and Vangelis, Perturbator is like a dark neon-soaked version of the ‘80s cranked up to 11. This kind of music could very easily veer off into hopeless cheesiness, but Perturbator’s compositions are a class above the army of bedroom producers also pushing material out onto the Internet.

Tim Hecker - Love Streams

Hecker’s last album, the brilliant Virgins, was a haunting delight. Love Streams goes in another direction, less malevolent and more alien. Love Streams’ hazy, quivering tones create music that feels out of reach, a mix of traditional instruments and unrecognizable sounds, including voices from the Icelandic Choir Ensemble which present like unrecognizable alien voices lost behind the maelstrom. The album title confuses, sounding either naively romantic or vaguely lewd, but both fit in the sense that the album brings life forms to mind, and not the trajectories of celestial bodies or the artifice of digital machinery.

Autechre - elseq 1-5

Four hours of new Autechre! This digital-only surprise release is best described as a marathon. For those unaware, Autechre’s live shows are not of the “push-play-button” variety. Rather, they are real-time improvisational performances, new music strung together on the fly. Last year, they dropped a 9 hour set of live recordings as AE_LIVE. On elseq, the duo takes that improv approach into the studio, where they have considerably more toys to play with than in a live setting. What we get is something different from most Autechre studio releases, particularly the early ones upon which the band built its reputation. Pieces are abstract, blurring the line between music and sound design. Oftentimes, a repeating beat is about all that is immediately identifiably “musical”, a sort of life-line which pulls the listener through a kaleidoscope of sound. Repetition will go from relentless in one track to absent in another. It’s often bewildering, and impossible to pin down in easy description.

This one just give me chills. Loscil has put out a lot of good albums, and on this one, he pulls inspiration from the Philip Glass soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi. It’s not dark ambient like a Lustmord album, but it’s also not whimsical or pensive like a lot of ambient music. It’s vaguely (and sometimes not-so-vaguely) foreboding. PopMatters called it “the sonic equivalent of the scenery in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road”, and that’s a pretty good description. It evokes empty, decaying urban areas under a perpetually gray sky.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS

Director | Dancer: Melanie Lane (https://melanielane.info)
DOP | Editing: Jesper Berg (http://jesperberg.se)
Camera assistant: Laimonis Brakss
Kaitlyn’s invitation to create and choreograph a video for her track ‘Arthropoda’ was an exciting proposal. Her sound encompasses a unique blend of organic texture, within a futuristic realm which very much resonated with my interest in the potential for dance to take on those qualities and translate them into a visual narrative.
The concept for the video was to interpret Kaitlyn’s other-wordly, sonic universe by combining dance with a sculptural, architectural environment. The video embarks upon a surreal narrative that merges nature vs urban, reality vs sci-fi, future vs present. The Stapelbäddsparken (skate park) in Malmö, Sweden was the perfect location, offering a vast concrete landscape of urban textures and elegant, majestic lines that echo our natural world.
The choreography is about the excavation of space - designing movement in space to unearth something unique, playful and supernatural. The dance style developed its own anomalous language, exclusively inspired by Kaitlyn’s sound. The image of the dancer is between human and mythical - borrowing from fluid contemporary movement to more graphic, insect-like choreography.
The video for ‘Anthropoda’ is a universal story that embodies the curiosity and desire of human nature to transcend our environment. It magnifies texture and form whilst proposing the existence of otherness.
Through the dance between a human body and an urban space, the film celebrates the playfulness, power and beauty embedded in Kaitlyn’s sonic universe.
http://vevo.ly/wq5D3i

Much like the Tim Hecker album, this is a very “organic electronic” album, incorporating woodwinds and other acoustic instruments, as well as human voices, over her primary instrument of a vintage late ‘60s modular synth (Buchla 100) that evokes that retro-futurism of that era. It’s lush, meditative, and disorienting, like the soundtrack to landing on a rich, hospitable landscape on an alien planet.

Ambient music in the true Brian Eno sense, False Readings On is pretty, but also unsettling. Pieces will fade in with the kind of gentle sonic washes that would be at home on schmaltzy new wave albums with pictures of soft beach tides on their covers, but Matthew Cooper will then play against that by layering sounds and counter-melodies that disrupt and invoke subtle feelings of anxiety.

Venetian Snares - Traditional Synthesizer Music

Venetian Snares - Traditional Synthesizer Music
February 19, 2016
I made a live album in my house, recorded between July and December 2014!
http://www.planet.mu/discography/TIMESIG005
https://venetiansnares.bandcamp.com/album/traditional-synthesizer-music
Physical Preorders come with a 10 Track Bonus Album on CD!
All Preorders come with an instant download of Magnificent Stumble V2

Aaron Funk sets aside his laptop software synths, and builds a wall. A wall of modular synth modules, that is. Unlike his often-bonkers (and often- brilliant) past work, Funk composed and recorded this album live entirely on modular synthesizer equipment, with no overdubbing or editing. The abrasiveness of typical VS albums is largely absent. Instead, Funk’s tendencies towards abruptness and off-kilter rhythms is restrained, peeking through rather than dominating. In making a less challenging album, though, Funk has made one of the most captivating Venetian Snares releases yet.

This album came to be in large part because of the Venetian Snares album above. Aaron Funk and Joseph Fraioli were friends in the past, who reconnected over their recent shared interest in modular synths. Fraioli had been posting videos of his setup on his Vimeo channel, which led to Funk pestering him into putting Fraioli into putting together an album to release on Funk’s TimeSig label. It’s the first work Fraioli has released under the Datach'i moniker in a decade. Like Funk’s Venetian Snares album, this Datach'i release is a much less experimental album than previous releases. Instead, it’s finely crafted

S U R V I V E is a wonderful ‘80s synth extravaganza. The Austin-based group features four synthesizer players, two of whom were responsible for the renowned Stranger Things season 1 soundtrack.

Whereas the Perturbator album is very dark and aggressive, S U R V I V E is more dramatic film score. Giorgio Moroder’s “Tony’s Theme” from Scarface would make a good reference point. S U R V I V E (I already hate typing those spaces) pulls from other synth acts of the era, like Vangelis and (late-‘70s/early-'80s) Tangerine Dream.

Forma - Physicalist

Video by Leigh Silverblatt
From the album 'Physicalist' (Kranky Records, 2016)
www.leighsilverblatt.com

Slot this one right next to the S U R V I V E album, because that retro ‘80s synthesizer ambient soundscapes theme continues here. While S U R V I V E brings sparse, airy beats, Forma plows forward with driving kosmische beats straight out of Neu! or Kraftwerk… at least for the first half of the album. By the second half of the album, the beats start to show up less often,

Best Electronic EPs

Arca - Entrañas

▸ Artist: Arca
▸ Album: [2016] Entrañas
▸ Track: Entrañas (full album)
▸ Style: Abstract-Post-Industrial-Glitch
1. Pérdida
2. Torero
3. Culebra
4. Vicar
5. Cement Garden interlude
6. Baby Doll / ft. Mica Levi
7. Lulled
8. Think of / ft. Mica Levi & Massacooraman
9. Clocked
10. Pargo
11. Turnt / ft. Total Freedom
12. Girasol
13. Fount
14. Sin Rumbo (removed at the request of the "copyright owner")
Alt. link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6OjTiMY3o
(Artwork = “Memories of Feeling” by nancekievill
http://nancekievill.deviantart.com/)
Update (04-06-2017): [Merlin] Beggars is satisfied with the edit and has decided to release their copyright claim on this video. Leaving my remarks open to deter other potential take-down attempts.
Update (04-04-2017): The claimant aims to take down the video in 7 days. They still maintain "Sin Rumbo" is their property; even though it can still be downloaded free of charge on Arca's SoundCloud page or streamed from Arca's YouTube channel. As expected, there's no way to challenge the copyright claim without a reply from Arca himself. As a result, I've been forced to edit out the last track. It remains to be seen whether this will be sufficient to satisfy the claimant.
Update (03-26-2017): The claimant is disputing my appeal on two grounds: 1) they say XL Recordings has exclusive copyright to "Sin Rumbo" on Arca's upcoming self-titled album and so too retroactively on Entrañas; 2) they also say that because Arca has not explicitly dedicated this work to the public domain it cannot be shared without permission. As such, I've reached out on Arca's Twitter to request clarification over the status of the album. If I can't get confirmation directly from Arca, I'll concede to the claimant and edit out the last track as XL Recordings is not the proper copyright owner of the entire album.
Update (03-15-2017): The audio appears to have been restored for the time being. As this may only be a temporary result of the appeal process I have elected to leave my remarks to the claimant here for the purpose of public record and general copyleft education.
Update (03-15-2017): The claimant rejected my dispute without any explanation. I have appealed this decision with the following statement:
"On Independence Day (2016), Alejandro Ghersi (stage name Arca) self-released a 14-track mixtape entitled "Entrañas" to the public on his SoundCloud page(1-2). This work was released free of charge and without label, legal restriction, or explicit copyright. I have consulted the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) ACE database(3), WorldCat database(4), LastFM database(5), and Discogs database(6) and have yet to discover evidence for the exclusive legal entitlement of the claimant. It is my good faith belief that this work is in the public domain because the author has indicated a desire to release it to the public without legal protection(7). On what grounds does the claimant assume the right to violate the will of the artist and the free creative enrichment of his audience?"
"I find the YouTube content ID system is ripe for copyright abuse. In this system, the claimants are granted the benefit of the doubt over the defendant, can block access to public works, and then further reject their disputes without explanation, or third party oversight. Users are simply intimidated through this process and expected to accept the authority of the claimant on pain of copyright strikes against their account. Because of this policy, claimants can use their stature as a bullying tactic against users who lack the desire, knowledge, or ability to protect their rights. I ask those who review my counter-claim to take note of this form of abuse against the public domain."
"I request a neutral arbitrator to review this case and render a fair judgment."
1. http://www.spin.com/2016/07/arca-entranas-stream/
2. https://soundcloud.com/arca1000000/entranas
3. https://www.ascap.com/repertory#ace/performer/ARCA
4. http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Arca+Entran%CC%83as&qt=results_page
5. https://www.last.fm/music/Arca/Entran%CC%83as
6. https://www.discogs.com/Arca-Entranas/release/8735854
7. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/
Copyright claim (03-14-2017): Audio on this video has been muted at the request of the copyright claimant, "[Merlin] Beggars". I have filed a dispute against this claim on the grounds that the album was self-released for free and without label by the author. It is my good faith belief, therefore, that this work is in the public domain and as such should not be eligible for copyright claims.
The album can still be downloaded for free from the artist's SoundCloud page: https://soundcloud.com/arca1000000/entranas.

I’m calling this an EP, but in reality it’s a single 25 minute track, released only on SoundCloud and the file downloading site Mediafire. It’s supposed to represent 14 tracks, but as a single music file without many clearly distinguishable breaks, mapping them out is somewhat futile. Like last year’s brilliant album Mutant, it’s hard to adequately describe

This is honestly one of my favorite Aphex releases. I feel like post-hiatus Aphex is killing it. On this one, Richard D. James takes the notorious Cheetah MS800 synth (infamous for both its “unique” tone and being so incomprehensible to program that all but a few simply gave up), and coaxes rich sounds from it, in the form of some rather subdued but detailed tracks that beg for headphone listening. Those looking for that high-tempo complexity RDJ is known for won’t find it here, but rather this one
goes out to the fans of his brilliant Selected Ambient Works 1985-1992 debut.

Lorn - Vessel

The year 2100. In an effort to combat overpopulation, the postmortem social network "Anvil" is released.
A fusion of both Japanese and Belgian comics inspirations and sensibilities, such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira or Peeters & Schuiten's work. "Anvil" invites us on a journey through the eyes of a young woman in her final moments on earth.
Artist: Lorn
Title: Anvil
Label: Wednesday Sound
Directed by GERIKO (Hélène Jeudy & Antoine Caëcke)
Design, Script & Animation by Antoine Caëcke & Hélène Jeudy
Character Animation by Anthony Lejeune & Manddy Wyckens
// Links //
Contact: geriko.contact@gmail.com
LORN
http://www.lorn.bandcamp.com/album/vessel
http://www.soundcloud.com/lorn
GERIKO
http://vimeo.com/geriko
http://www.facebook.com/gerikofilm
http://www.instagram.com/gerikofilm
VIMEO LINK : http://vimeo.com/181706731
SXSW OFFICIAL SELECTION 2017
BERLIN MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS OFFICIAL SELECTION 2017
SEEYOUSOUND OFFICIAL SELECTION 2017
RSC SHORTFILM FEST OFFICIAL SELECTION 2017
ART FUTURA OFFICIAL SELECTION 2017

This was a quiet, down-low album release on Lorn’s Bandcamp page. I only heard of it because of the Headphone Commute review (and if you’re not familiar with HC, they review electronic/experimental/modern classical, and only write about things they like, so any “review” posted is also a recommendation). It is dense and dystopic, best illustrated by the animated video for the track Anvil. Available for pay-what-you-want on Lorn’s Bandcamp page

I’ve been a fan of Kettel since the first Myam James album. Before this one, his most recent work was the soundtrack to the co-op PC game Ibb and Obb. Like that game, Kettel’s work on Wingtip is bright and cheerfully melodic. It’s not a hard hitting or particularly forward thinking album, rather, it is a throwback to those ‘90s days of melodic, tuneful IDM. It made a great soundtrack to my Cities: Skyline sessions.

Kassem Mosse - Disclosure

This one didn’t seem to get much attention outside of a Pitchfork review, despite his full length debut a couple years ago (Workshop 19) earning a lot of praise. Maybe because this album sees Kassem Mosse moving far away from those minimal techno, club beat roots. In its place are a sequence of abstract tracks, which alternate between beatless ambient pieces and mid-tempo beat tracks that hint at his previous work, but glitched and corrupted.

Brad Fiedel - The Terminator (reissue)

“Terminator Theme (Extended)” was written and performed by Brad Fiedel for James Cameron’s 1984 Sci-Fi classic “Terminator”.
The Terminator Soundtrack has been made available by Milan records.
Buy The Terminator OST on Amazon: http://bit.ly/TerminatorOST
Buy The Terminator OST on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theTerminatorOST
Listen to The Terminator OST on Spotify: http://bit.ly/TheTerminatorOST

This soundtrack to the 1984 film has been out of print for about 20 years, and its previous releases were of poor quality and cut up sequentially. Recently, Fiedel regained creative control of the material, and with the help of Milan Records, has remastered and sequenced the material into its first true release.

Zomby - Ultra

There’s too many artists with this sort of name. Last year synthwave/space-rock duo Zombi with-an-I released a great album, and played Psycho poolside this year. This year, Zomby with-a-Y, the mask-wearing UK electronic producer, released his best album in a while. It’s grimy and inhospitable, playing at times like the soundtrack to a dim seedy club before making sharp right turns with inexplicable tempo changes that would immediately derail any foolish attempts at dancing to it.

Throughout John Carpenter’s long career, one thing he hasn’t done is release standalone albums. That is, until his debut last year, Lost Themes. This year, he returns with Lost Themes II, a continued collaboration with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies (son of Kinks guitarist Dave Davies). Carpenter’s timing is interesting, given how many artists lately have taken strong inspiration from the styles he defined as composer for the scores of his films. Lost Themes

Best Other Genres Album of 2016

Bent Knee - Say So

Our 2016 album "Say So" is available at http://tinyurl.com/bksayso
Music by Bent Knee
Starring Jake Brasch
Cinematography/Coloring by Eric Freeman
Directed by Jessica Kion
Editing by Ben Levin
Follow Bent Knee
Website: http://bentkneemusic.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/bentkneemusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bentkneemusic
Instagram: http://instagram.com/bentkneemusic
Cuneiform Records: http://cuneiformrecords.com
Bent Knee is:
Ben Levin - guitar & vocals
Chris Baum - violin & vocals
Courtney Swain - lead vocals & keyboards
Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth - drums
Jessica Kion - bass & vocals
Vince Welch - production & sound design
-----
Lyrics
I made myself strong
By getting my skin numb
And loosening up the thumbs
By pumping out the black tar water
I made myself real
By ripping up magazines
And staving off disease
By pumping out the black tar water
I made my friends leave
With tightrope at their knees
And laughing when they sneeze
I’m throwing up the black tar water
I start to tell it wrong
While singing in a song
Where robbers held up guns
They’re shooting out the black tar water
Dripping off follicles
Seeping out my pores
Filling up my lungs
Oh my my
Dripping off follicles
Seeping out my pores
Filling up my lungs
Oh oh my my
My black tar water
My black tar water

This avant-pop sextet caught my attention with this release. It’s their third album, and the first on Cuneiform after self-releasing the first two. The band blends pop, chamber, jazz, and prog together, not unlike the bands Carla Kilhstedt is known for (Charming Hostess, Tin Hat, or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum without the metal). The musicians are all graduates of the Berklee College of Music, and their virtuosity shines as they explore avant-garde avenues within pop structures. This is “prog” for people that liked The Beatles' pop experiments more so than the keyboard gymnastics of Emerson or Wakeman. It’s fresh, unique, and should pull audiences from a wide cross-section of musical tastes.

The Rest of the Best

Free Salamander Exhibit - Undestroyed

If the band’s name didn’t clue you in, this is a resurrection of sorts of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, featuring 4/5ths of that band’s members (all but Carla Kihlstedt, sadly). FSE had played live shows as early as 2013, but had not released any material until now, just squeezing into 2016 with this mid-December release. What’s here is a slightly paired down version of SGM. They continue to dwell at the intersection of metal, prog, and RIO avant-rock, albeit with a bit less of the pulling-instruments-out-of-every-orifice insanity of SGM. It’s been nearly 10 years since the final Sleepytime Gorilla Museum album, making this a welcome new chapter for that collective of musicians. Also a well timed one, as Sleepytime’s back catalog was re-issued this year on the Blood Music label.

Radiohead’s last full length, 2001’s The King of Limbs, didn’t really connect with me. It landed it in the same discard pile that Hail to the Thief ended up in, whereas I loved Kid A, Amnesiac, and In Rainbows. A Moon Shaped Pool fortunately finds itself joining the latter group. It is not Radiohead’s most boundary-pushing album. In fact, lyrically, it’s practically a break-up album, clearly informed by Thom Yorke’s split from his wife a year ago (who passed away from cancer this December). Those lyrics are delivered within perfectly executed hazy art rock, with each song like walking from one dream-state vignette to another.

Wadada Leo Smith - America’s National Parks

Wadada Leo Smith - "New Orleans: The National Culture Park USA 1718" [Excerpt] from 'America's National Parks' (out now on Cuneiform Records)
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"Smith uses his magisterial instrumental voice, his inspirational leadership and his command of classical, jazz and blues forms to remind us of what has gone down and what's still happening."
– DownBeat’s 80 Coolest Things in Jazz Today
"A trumpeter and composer of penetrating insight."
– Nate Chinen, The New York Times
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet, director of the ensemble
Anthony Davis – piano
Ashley Walters – cello
John Lindberg – bass
Pheeroan akLaff – drums
With America’s National Parks, visionary composer and Wadada Leo Smith offers his latest epic collection, a suite inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies of the country’s public landscapes. Writing for his newly expanded Golden Quintet, Smith crafts six extended works that explore, confront and question the preserved natural resources that are considered the most hallowed ground in the U.S. – and some that should be.
America’s National Parks was released shortly before Smith’s 75th birthday in December, arriving, coincidentally, in the midst of celebrations for the centennial of the National Park Service, which was created by an act of Congress on August 25, 1916. The spark for the project, however, came from two places: Smith’s own research into the National Park system, beginning with Yellowstone, the world’s first national park; and Ken Burns’ 12-hour documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.
trumpeter six-movement"The idea that Ken Burns explored in that documentary was that the grandeur of nature was like a religion or a cathedral," Smith says. "I reject that image because the natural phenomenon in creation, just like man and stars and light and water, is all one thing, just a diffusion of energy. My focus is on the spiritual and psychological dimensions of the idea of setting aside reserves for common property of the American citizens."
His 28-page score for America’s National Parks was penned for his Golden Quintet, a fresh reconfiguration of the quartet that’s been a keystone of his expression for the last 16 years. Pianist Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Pheeroan akLaff are joined by cellist Ashley Walters, affording the composer and bandleader new melodic and coloristic possibilities. "The cello as a lead voice with the trumpet is magnificent," Smith says, "but when you look at the possibilities for melodic formation with the trumpet, the cello, the piano and the bass, that’s paradise for a composer and for a performer."
While these preserved landscapes offer the inspiration of powerful natural beauty, Smith’s always open-minded view of the world leads him to find that same inspiration wherever he is. "Every concrete house is from nature," he says. "Every plastic airplane that flies 300 people across the ocean comes out of nature. Every air conditioner conditions a natural piece of air. I think that the human being is constantly enfolded in organic nature and constructed nature, so I’m constantly inspired, inside the house or outside the house."
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It trips me up so much to see such a highly lauded jazz album coming from Steve Feigenbaum’s Cuneiform Records label, one of the guys I used to chat with in prog-rock dork circles. I still associate Cuneiform really strongly with RIO avant-prog, so to see an album that was sandwiched in the release schedule between Richard Pinhas albums make it to the top of jazz end-of-year lists is just amusing. Can’t say that it’s not deserving, though.

For those disappointed by last year’s Liturgy album, but love Greg Fox’s drumming, here’s your chance to hear him play what the album’s label calls “45 minutes of uninterrupted gritty and grinding cyborg thrash”. He’s joined by modular synth player Ryan Soper, and the two

This is the third album from this duo, featuring the Mazzy Star lead singer and the drummer from My Bloody Valentine, coming 7 years after their last. In the interim, both groups reformed/resumed activity and released well-received new albums. And like the work of those groups, this is an album that is not in a hurry to get anywhere. The opening 9-minute track is a thick dream-pop fog. Other tracks invoke folk as well as Sandoval’s Mazzy Star work. It’s Sandoval’s ethereal voice and some varied instrumentation in the often minimalist accompaniment that elevates this above the run of the mill singer-songwriter-over-fingerpicked-guitar album.

It’s been 6 years (and counting) since the last Massive Attack full-length release. Back in 2010, “Daddy G” Marshall rejoined the group with a promise to “bring the black back to Massive Attack”. That didn’t fully manifest on that year’s album, Heligoland, but it does here, with each track featuring black rappers and producers, including former bandmember Tricky on the final track. As a result, it’s easily the “blackest” thing Massive Attack has done in nearly 20 years, and is all the better for it.

Best Metal Album of 2016

Cobalt - Slow Forever

The contest was basically over before it began. Slow Forever came out in March, and nothing else really came close. This is just an amazing melting pot of extreme metal. Cobalt becomes less tethered to black metal on this album, pulling from blues, Americana, hardcore, Tool, psych, prog, and hard rock. And Charlie Fell comes roaring in like he was shot out of a fucking cannon, just spitting fire in what is hands down the best extreme vocal performance of the year.

The Rest of the Best

(in no particular order)

SubRosa - For This We Fought the Battle of Ages

Music from the album "For This We Fought The Battle of Ages" by SubRosa
Directed by Danica Vallone and Thomas Dekker
For This We Fought the Battle of Ages is Copyright of Profound Lore Records August 26, 2016

I said “in no particular order”, but I put this one at the top because, if not for the Cobalt album, this would have been my #1 metal album of 2016. Doom metal has been enjoying a spike in interest, with a ton of bands churning out excellent but derivative albums. SubRosa is one of the bands moving the style forward, incorporating chamber music elements (similar to a number of post-rock bands) and Americana folk into something far more diverse than the “Praise Iommi” crowd produces. (Although, still, praise Iommi). The expressive, emotive sound they crafted on their earlier albums is perfected here, though really it was perfected on the last album. The atmosphere is simultaneously dark and beautiful, and the band flows from prettiness to harsh catharsis and back. The dual violins sing and then scream. The lyrics are often weighty, best illustrated by “Troubled Cells”, which is essentially a protest piece against the Mormon church’s treatment of LGBT people (frontwoman Rebecca Vernon is a practicing Mormon). This is a band at the top of their game, and the top of whatever subgenre one wants to label them.

All of my sex dreams involve Julie Christmas screaming at me. She’s not even the one I’m having sex with, she’s just there for ambiance. The queen of my fear boners teams up with excellent Swedish post-metal band Cult of Luna. As much as Julie Christmas’s strangled-cat screaming freak outs make me melt, her level of restraint on this album works in its favor. It’s probably the most subdued I’ve heard her on an album. While she tends to be the focal point on her former bands’ records, here she’s a peer with the band, as Cult of Luna are too strong for her to overpower. Cult of Luna posted something interesting on their Facebook page after touring with Julie in support of this album, referencing how they “had no idea of how Julie and Andrew would be on a personal level” and how touring sometimes “takes out the worst in people”, but that they were happy with how well everyone got on during the tour. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Julie might have a reputation for being difficult, which is something I’ve suspected (Made Out of Babies basically went on to form a new band with all of their members except Julie). Fortunately, that didn’t seem to rear its head for Cult of Luna.

Another favorite from early in the year. It’s like krautrock black metal, which is awesome if you like krautrock, as I do. Unlike earlier releases from the band, though, the black metal influence isn’t dominant, but is part of an ever-shifting stylistic mix. The band creates melodic ambient grooves, which it then uses as launching pads to go into various freak-out excursions, and then uses them as the landing pads upon which they bring it back down and flow back into the steady groove. Some people (AMG reviewer and commenters mostly) have complained about the production, but it’s a thick boomy sound that brings to mind early Pink Floyd (which works with this material), and not that stereotypical shrill made-for-cassette black metal production. In fact, I would argue that the relative lack of “dynamic range” is part of what keeps the album from falling into that loud-soft-loud post-rock trope.

Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows

INTER ARMA - "The Summer Drones" (Official Music Video) off the new album 'Paradise Gallows,' out now on CD/2XLP/Digital via Relapse Records. Order Here: http://bit.ly/paradise-gallows
Co-directed by John Nunn & Mikael Simpson
Edited by Mikael Simpson
Assistant directed by Katie Hidalgo
Live footage shot by Frank Huang
Brendan Kennedy as The Wanderer
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Lyrics:
“Here, where the sun blooms with no respite, crooked men and vagabonds
seek the holiness of silence.”
We’ve spent a spell drifting on paths bygone,
Where our voices wane against the breath of Gods.
The summer drones...
“Here, where the spirit is purged of all earthly trespass, crooked men and
vagabonds desire a most desolate peace.”
But we’ll tread on, through a season unchanged,
Across barren expanse to the high desert plain
Where we’ll accept our fate and take our rightful place
Among the devils and thieves nailed to the Joshua trees.
The summer drones on.

This album is just massive, both in sound and in running length (71 minutes, not including the hidden track after ~20 minutes of silence on the digital release). It took me some time to fully absorb, as it’s a difficult one to take in as background music during work. It’s an expansive, encompassing mix of sludge, prog, and doom, just a record to get absolutely lost in. The group consists of a number of multi-instrumentalist musicians, and they put their flexibility to use in creating a wide sonic palette with which to build these staggering, cavernous pieces. The cover art is some of the best of the year, with the collapsing ship being overtaken by the sea, and is befitting of the force-of-nature power conveyed by the music.

Neurosis - Fires Within Fires

I did not know what to expect from a Neurosis album in 2016. The previous album had released right before the last US presidential election, and the members have been so busy with solo projects and side bands. Neurosis remains as powerful as ever, but their sound has taken on a sense of age, of weariness. The shaman leading the rituals has become acutely aware of the fact that he’s an old man. The lyric “we will never, ever get to rest” during the climax of album closer “Reach” always hits me square, as it perfectly encapsulates what Neurosis sounds like today: old, wise, tired, but unbroken.

Ulcerate - Shrines of Paralysis

ULCERATE - "Shrines Of Paralysis," from the new album 'Shrines Of Paralysis, out now on CD/2xLP/Digital via Relapse Records. Order here: bit.ly/ulcerate-sop
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Although not blessed with the same caliber of album title as 2009’s [i]Everything is Fire[/i], Ulcerate’s avant-garde death metal still burns everything the fuck down. I loathe to refer to Ulcerate as “tech death” for the same reason there’s a number of bands I hate to refer to as “prog metal” - both of those labels bring to mind guitars playing as many notes as possible, like 4 people simultaneously pounding on a Rock Band guitar. Make no mistake, Ulcerate often plays at a breakneck pace, but much of that is in the blistering rhythms more so than any tweedly-deedly-dee shred king wannabe guitar wankery. In fact, it can take a careful listen to recognize the guitars are often holding and sustaining notes longer when the drums kick into full speed.

Aaron Turner’s best will always make my list. This has to make any list of best-produced metal albums of the year - recorded in an empty church, the reverberations feed back into the massive, overwhelming sound. That is, if you call it metal. It’s too heavy to call it anything else, really, but the band tosses traditional song structure aside. It’s just heavy avant-garde music. It’s definitely an album that can try your attention span, as that lack of structure makes it less accessible than a classic ISIS album - it’s more like Turner’s work with Old Man Gloom taken to a new stylistic extreme. The weirdest thing about this album is that it released on Thrill Jockey, which I still associate with post-rock and indie-jazz-rock bands like Tortoise, Isotope 217, and The Sea and Cake.

Lycus - Chasms

LYCUS - "Solar Chamber" from 'Chasms out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records. Order at Relapse: http://bit.ly/LycusChasms
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This one just barely released in 2016 (Google Play annoyingly continues to mark it 2015, but it was January 2016). Lycus doesn’t turn the funeral doom formula on its head, so much as they incorporate other elements to avoid predictability. Peppered throughout are trem-picked black metal screech-outs, which nicely break apart and mesh with the slower funeral doom marches, rather than clashing. The addition of cello adds more texture and dimension to the low rumbling sound. It’s the band’s shifts in tone and tempo, which work in service to the relentless doom march rather than derailing it, which make the album. Absolutely delightful, and I am still crushed that I had to choose between seeing Baroness or them at Psycho Las Vegas (and, as fun as Baroness’s set was, I think I may have made the wrong choice).

Oh yes. Mantar cooks up blackened sludge and delivers it in repeated gut punches. Ode to the Flame is a little less straightforward than the band’s debut album, and that makes all the difference. They pull bits from other genres into their mix, from doom to thrash to crust punk to groove, but with a persistent coat of grime layered on top. This is another one of those albums this year that delivers catchy songs in an extreme metal style, and it got a lot of great reviews but doesn’t seem to have made anyone’s best-of lists the way some of those others have. Well those lists are wrong, Mantar blows those other releases away.

Best Metal EPs of 2016

Gorguts - Pleiades’ Dust

Taken from the forthcoming album "Pleiades' Dust". Release Date: May 13th, 2016
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If there were anything right in this world, Gorguts’ existence would spawn an identifiable new subgenre, a sort of Metal in Opposition update to the Rock in Opposition (RIO) genre of Henry Cow, Univers Zero, etc. On this EP, Gorguts puts avant-garde death metal into a multi-movement modern classical style of composition, culminating in a continuous 33 minute piece of music. And it demands to be listened to in a continuous 33 minutes of time, as it flows between ambient atmospherics and crushing experimental death metal bursts.

Tombs - All Empires Fall

Music video for TOMBS' new track "V", from 'All Empires Fall,' out now on CD/LP/Digital worldwide via Relapse Records. Order at Relapse.com: http://bit.ly/TombsEmpires
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Directed by Jaclyn Sheer.
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Tombs has added synthesizer/electronics player (and second vocalist) Fade Kainer, which brings some new industrial and gothic elements into the mix. This EP is clearly the band experimenting with this new elements. It features sections of ambience that were hinted at with the track “Severed Lives” on 2014’s fabulous album Savage Gold, but Kainer’s presence greatly aids in the execution of these moments, adding the necessary texture to make them interesting. When not exploring these more subdued areas, the band kicks in with the same kind of propulsive metal that made Savage Gold so good.

Skeletonwitch - The Apothic Gloom

DOWNLOAD NOW @ https://skeletonwitch.bandcamp.com
Ohio blackened thrash outfit SKELETONWITCH debut the first single "Well of Despair" featuring new vocalist Adam Clemans (Wolvhammer).
Check out a glimpse as the band recorded the single, along with material from their Apothic Gloom EP, due out 08/19, with Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations in Baltimore, MD.
(DSLR footage courtesy of Josh Sisk)
"Well of Despair" is available for digital download via Bandcamp https://skeletonwitch.bandcamp.com.
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This one’s so good, and it’s a shame that it isn’t getting more attention, perhaps due to being an EP. The band dismissed their previous frontman due to his alcoholism, and enlisted Wolvhammer’s Adam Clemans to take over. His vocals have more of a presence than the previous vocalist’s, whose voice on the last album tended to get lost a bit in the audio soup with the trem-picked guitars and high hats. Skeletonwitch writes tight pieces that sound bigger and longer than their runtime, and that’s on full display here with what they’ve packed into a 20 minute EP.

Goya - Doomed Planet

This Arizona three-piece has been releasing quite a bit of material of late. This year alone, they released two new EPs, a third EP of early demos, and a two-song single of Nirvana covers. This EP is the best of the bunch, featuring two long heavy tracks of desert-tinged doom, a short instrumental piece, and a Marilyn Manson cover. Great for fans of thick fuzz and clean vocals.

Honorable Mentions

Oh my god. It really hurt to keep the next 3 out of the top 10 albums.

Oathbreaker - Rheia

From The Album "Rheia" | In Stores Now: http://www.theoathbreakerreigns.com
Video by Jeroen Mylle and Fabrice Parent - Maanlander http://www.maanlander.eu/
"Rheia" is the groundbreaking album from Belgium's Oathbreaker. Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Loma Prieta), "Rheia" is a true game changer for the genre. Blurring lines and dissolving the boundaries of heavy music as we know it today.
Opener "10:56" begins with a haunting guitar riff and Caro Tanghe's beautifully sung vocal before abruptly soaring to new heights with "Second Son of R". Its blasts of melody mutate into a blackened buzz while waves of tempo changes pound down with intense emotional weight. "Being Able To Feel Nothing" then rolls in like a storm. Chaotically breaking apart to reveal the eye before churning once again. "Stay Here / Accroche-Moi" is an otherworldly reverb drenched acoustic number that leads to "Needles In Your Skin". A deeply personal song that showcases the artistic strength vulnerability brings. It's hard to believe that this is just the half way point of this post everything masterwork. "Immortals" then unfurls as a goose bump inducing monster. This leads to the ambitious "I'm Sorry, This Is", "Where I Live", and "Where I Leave”; A musical triptych that needs to be heard to be believed. All of it comes to an end with mesmerizing closer "Begeerte". Ethereally materializing before vanishing into the beautiful unknown.

Hipster black metal alert! This is a varied album that moves from blast-beat black metal to shoegaze to soft atmospherics, all punctuated by vocalist Caro Tanghe. Tanghe often brings Julie Christmas to mind, both in her clean vocals and shrieking freak-outs. Really, “Deafheaven + Julie Christmas” wouldn’t be the worst way to describe the band, though Oathbreaker comes from a hardcore background that informs their style even as they distance themselves from it. What sets Oathbreaker apart is just the raw emotion that they convey, primarily through those vocals. The band breaks down the opening 8 minutes of the album in an excellent episode of the Song Exploder podcast.

This is one of my most played albums this year, and it hurt to leave it off the 10. I almost wanted to cheat and call it an indie rock album and slip it on my Other Genres list instead. The Sludgelord describes it nicely: imagine Kylesa at their most psychedelic covering Sleater-Kinney. It’s sludge-y indie rock, driven by the vocals of all 3 members (2 female and 1 male). This album should be one of the ones getting the “hipster” indie crossover attention.

Vektor - Terminal Redux

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LYRICS:
Through the black, the hull is stacked
Taking in the haul from Alshain
Growing cracks, but still intact
Encroaching on the Cygnus domain
Beacon light within my sight
The terminal is glowing in space
Symbol for the free, but not for me
I’m preparing to plead my case
Like the moon is silent, consumed by the void
All screams from inside are destroyed
I was served an injustice as head of the Guard
Unbalanced and covetous was my charge
I have returned
With malice that can’t be unlearned
I have arrived
Like the rise of a massive tide
Cygnus Terminal
Iso Subject 5, where were you?
Gone for 13 years and only aged 2
We deal with the terminal, we deal with death
We are the bringers of balance; we are the lungs of the cosmic breath
Iso Subject 5, your tracker was damaged at take-off
How could you survive?
We thought you were gone
Cygnus Terminal
Iso Subject 5, you say that’s not your name?
Isolation must have twisted your brain
We deal with the terminal, we deal with death
We are the bringers of balance, we are the lungs of the cosmic breath
Iso Subject 5, you’ve strayed from your tests
You must have lost your mind
Why don’t we just kill you now and put this all to rest?
I crossed the Great Divide
I now have command over time
It’s futile to object
Now grant my parole from the Isolation Project
All the years trapped in silence
All there was to confide in
Was my waning sense of worth
Now reprieved of the tests
My soul is battered at best
But I’ve lived to see my rebirth
Policies of my decree
Once again, are enforced by me
Epsilon, Pteropticon
Failing now because of my leave
LCD, at full capacity
This is where I’ll restart my work
Take the names of those who caused me shame
Be silent, swift, and deft on your search
Like the moon is silent, consumed by the void
All screams from inside are destroyed
I have returned
With malice that can’t be unlearned
I have arrived
Like the rise of a massive tide

The first couple of times I listened to this, I didn’t get very far. It’s a beast at 73 minutes long. After a little warming up, it started to click for me, scratching that same scifi-thrash itch that last year’s VHOL album so brilliantly did. I haven’t paid much attention to the album’s narrative - I don’t get much out of the “concept” part of “concept album” these days - but I get a lot out of the thrashy riffing. It’s a long album, but by the time “Recharging the Void” finishes, I’m ready to hear “Charging the Void” again.

Insomnium - Winter’s Gate

There were a few cold-weather atmospheric black metal albums this year, but Insomnium’s was the one that stood out the most. Written as a single album-length track, but broken up into parts (a la Crimson or A Pleasant Shade of Gray), this 40-minute album is intended to be taken as a whole, but does break down into separate songs much more cleanly than, say, the Gorguts EP. Everything about the compositions on this album screams “winter”. The compositions feed into the album’s winter theme extremely well, from the trem-picked blizzard winds to the soft piano evoking near-silent snowfall in softer moments like the first half of Part 5. It’s too bad I already finished playing through Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, because this would have made a great soundtrack for those play sessions. I’ll break it out again when I play through that expansion content of Pillars of Eternity.

If These Trees Could Talk - The Bones of a Dying World

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If These Trees Could Talk "Solstice" from the album "The Bones of a Dying World".

The best instrumental post-metal album this year isn’t the Russian Circles album, it’s this one. The band signed to Metal Blade a year ago, whom promptly reissued their previously self-released first two albums. The band features three guitarists that create layered melodies, making for some mesmerizing passages as the guitars weave in and out of playing separate and interlocked parts. It’s debatable whether they should fall under post-metal or post-rock, much like Russian Circles, but what’s less debatable is that it’s an excellent record, and the band should get some more attention under Metal Blade’s wing.

SUNN O))) - НЕЖИТЬ: живьём в России (NOLIFE: Alive in Moscow

A))) is the lead off track from the new Sunn O))) triple live album "НЕЖИТЬ: живьём в России."
https://sunn.bandcamp.com/album/-

This was a quiet release, as a limited edition triple-vinyl (all sold out) and Bandcamp digital download. This is a recording of the band’s first Moscow performance, with audio pulled both from the soundboard and audience, mixed and mastered together. As quiet as the release of the album was, the audio itself is HUGE. Massive. It makes previous SUNN O))) live albums like Domkirke and Aghartui Live 09-10 (the most recent live album, itself a digital + limited physical release) sound small in comparison. It is probably the closest representation of SUNN’s oppressing live sound put to recording. (Or at least, I assume, based on reputation, as I’ve yet to experience it in person. God, please let SUNN O))) be one of the Psycho headliners this year).

Much better than Koloss. So much better. Meshuggah style changes are always subtle movements within a relatively small area, like a quarterback shifting around in the pocket. They’re immediately identifiable as Meshuggah, yet people certainly identify different styles as favorites. For me, the best Meshuggah has been the more hard-charging Meshuggah on Chaosphere and ObZen. The Violent Sleep of Reason doesn’t quite keep pace with those releases, but it’s certainly closer than some of their more deliberately paced recordings. It’s also less repetitive than some of those other albums. It’s probably my third or fourth favorite Meshuggah album (depending on where I feel like putting Destroy Erase Improve), which is a pretty damn good ranking for an album.

Deftones - Gore

Deftones Official Music Video for "Prayers/Triangles" from the new album 'Gore'
Get 'Gore' at http://www.Deftones.com
On tour this summer - http://www.Deftones.com/Tour
Follow Deftones:
http://www.Deftones.com
http://www.Facebook.com/Deftones
http://www.Twitter.com/Deftones
http://www.Instagram.com/Deftonesband
Directed by Charles Bergquist
http://work.charlesbergquist.com

This is the first Deftones album that really landed with me. This is what “alternative metal” should be. It’s like an album from an alternate timeline, where the alternative metal of Faith No More, Helmet, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden continued forward, and never took that right turn into nu-metal (which, yes, is an ironic idea given Around the Fur). As if there was a plague that was constrained to only wiping out the Family Values Tour ‘98. Gone is the preening nu-metal Fast and Furious ‘tude, and in its place is a mature, textured album, with some of the best songwriting the genre has seen of late.

Aluk Todolo - Voix

Oranssi Pazuzu isn’t the only krautrock black metal I got to enjoy this year. Unlike the Oranssi Pazuzu album, this one is entirely instrumental, and it leans more towards focusing on extended hypnotic grooves a la Neu! or Tago Mago era Can (the best Can). As is a theme of many albums this year, the 43 minute length plays out as a single unbroken piece of music, divided up into six tracks named simply I through VI. Hypnotic really is the best word for this, as it’s very easy to get lost in. One particular late-night coding session of mine this month involved me with headphones on and this on repeat, and repeatedly hitting the end of the album and wondering where the time went. It’s enveloping, and relentlessly forward moving. Even softer parts, like IV, have an undeniable steady forward momentum. This will remain in my rotation for a long time as coding music.

People call this Gojira’s “Black Album”. The Grammy nomination seems to lend some credence to that claim. But while Gojira may have turned down their heaviness, that’s in comparison with themselves. There’s no “Unforgiven” or “Nothing Else Matters” here, not unless you count the album’s instrumental outro. This is still a hard hitting metal album, and what they’ve traded down in heaviness and instrumental complexity, they’ve gained as songwriters. It’s not quite my ideal direction for them - I would have loved an album that uses these more song-oriented pieces in-between a couple of longer complex pieces, giving a taste of both worlds. While that’s not the way they went, I am satisfied with their final result. Just as long as the next one isn’t Gojira’s “Load”.

Khemmis - Hunted

Hunted (2016)
http://khemmis.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/khemmisdoom/
https://www.facebook.com/20buckspin/
Doomed rock 'n' roll from Denver, CO.
Khemmis
Denver, Colorado
==================
Khemmis - Hunted (2016)
1. Above The Water
2. Candlelight
3. Three Gates
4. Beyond The Door
5. Hunted
Hunted comes just over a year after the release of KHEMMIS’ stunning Absolution debut, which caught the doom world by complete surprise, and set the band up as one of the scene’s favorite new artists. The album slowly but surely steamrolled all that came in contact with its unforgettable heaviness and classic melodicism. Virtually unknown outside Denver upon release, the band gathered acclaim over the ensuing months and by year end had landed in the #9 spot on Decibel Magazine’s annual Top 40 Albums Of The Year, not a small accomplishment for a band on its debut album.

Hunted is a sublime mix of traditional doom metal, jumpstarted with some Iron Maiden energy and guitar noodling. It’s another band that’s not satisfied to just slug out some slow riffs and wallow. (Although, again, praise Iommi.) What’s amazing is just how approachable the whole thing is. I could send this album to my dad, even though it’s ostensibly a doom metal album with track lengths that average nearly 9 minutes. (And it is an album that I repeatedly played in the car with my wife, to no complaint.) The compositions aren’t overly technical, but they also avoid staying in one place too long, deftly moving to new melodies without overwhelming the listener. Clean, emotive vocals dominate, with some doom growls joining the mix as additional texture. It’s easy to see why this got so much love on best of lists. Whereas the Helms Alee album is one I think should cross over to indie rock fans, this is one that should cross over to classic hard rock fans.

I still very much enjoy a bi-annual Russian Circles album, even if the formula becomes recognizable (pretty, gentler intro track, second track that kicks everything up a notch, etc). If there’s a knock on the album, it’s the existence of the group’s strong, similar back catalog. It’s hard to be mad when they consistently deliver such a high quality, and when so few other groups can deliver the same thing in the same sort of space.

Revocation - Great is Our Sin

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises
Theatre of Horror · Revocation
Great Is Our Sin
℗ 2016 Metal Blade Records, Inc.
Released on: 2016-07-22
Music Publisher: Revocation Music
Auto-generated by YouTube.

I was surprised to see the slightly cool reception that this album received. The reviews were positive enough, but I don’t recall seeing it on many (if any) best-of lists, even as an honorable mention. I think this falls into the same issue as Russian Circles: they’ve been steadily prolific and maintained a high level of quality, but a formula is emerging. This album doesn’t depart very far from what they achieved on Deathless. That said, to me, this is Revocation at their most melodic and fluid. It’s a subtle maturing, but it feels like the rest of their package catching up to their technical acument. I think part of the issues with the cool reception is that the first track feels very Revocation-by-numbers, and first tracks have a way of sticking out the most and coloring opinions. It’s with the second track, “Theatre of Horror”, where the album begins in earnest.

It was cool seeing Abbath on the Decibel Tour this year, playing a mix of his new solo album and some Immortal favorites. The solo album doesn’t stray far from what Immortal did well, which isn’t much surprise given he was that band’s primary composer in addition to being the frontman. It probably helps that Immortal took such a long break (only 3 albums released in the 2000s), because this would probably feel a lot more tired if the were 7 albums between Sons of Northern Darkness and this, instead of only one. Instead, it feels like Abbath had plenty of ideas left to explore within the general style Immortal perfected on that album.

Helion Prime - Helion Prime

Life Finds a Way (Official Video)
From the debut self titled album of Helion Prime
**often we hear the issue that you can't hear the vocals. We assure you this problem is a YouTube error. Find the album on Spotify or other online resources and you'll see that's now how it's mixed on the album.
Connect with us!
http://www.helionprimemetal.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helionprimemetal
Instagram: @helionprimemetal
Twitter: @saibotreigns
Snapchat: saibotreigns
Video filmed by Mike Sloat!

Vektor isn’t the only band with a hard-drivin’ space metal album this year. Helion Prime’s debut album is a fun, cheesy chunk of space-themed power metal. Power metal is rarely my go-to, usually relegated to occasional change-up status, and this album isn’t going to be the one to change that. But it is a good time, helped in large part by the female not-at-all-operatic vocals. That vocalist has left the band, but in an interesting turn of events, Witch Mountain’s Kayla Dixon has been tapped to be the replacement. That makes two bands that Kayla fronts without appearing on any of their released albums, but hopefully both bands change that in 2017.

Kvelertak - Nattesferd

Kvelertak's video for 'Nattesferd'' from the album, Nattesferd - available now on Roadrunner Records.
The video was shot on Fårö, a Baltic Sea island off the south eastern coast of Sweden.
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman lived and died on Fårö and several of his films were filmed there, among them Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Persona (1966), Hour of the Wolf(1968), Shame (1968), The Passion of Anna (1969), and Scenes from a Marriage (1972).
The video was produced by Norwegian production company, Bacon and directed by Jakob Marky. Jakob is a recent winner of the prestigious After Bergman award which allowed the possibility of filming on Fårö.
Pick up Nattesferd today at http://kvelertak.com
Site: http://kvelertak.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kvelertak
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kvelertak‎
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kvelertakofficial

This album sounds like an extreme metal band covering classic hard rock songs from a parallel timeline. The songs sound familiar, like they’re forgotten hits from that mid-70s-to-early-80s period of arena rock, bar bands, and punk. Songs that, if sung and produced in clean fashion, you could easily imagine alongside Thin Lizzy and Ted Nugent, alongside Van Halen and Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Ramones. It’s like a classic hard rock album from a reality where growled vocals tagged along with fuzzy overdriven guitars when they went mainstream.

Sumerlands - Sumerlands

SUMERLANDS - "The Guardian" from 'Sumerlands' debut LP out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records. Order Here: http://bit.ly/sumerlands
Subscribe to Relapse: http://bit.ly/RelapseYouTube
Order on Bandcamp: http://sumerlands.bandcamp.com
Order on Google Play: http://geni.us/sumerlandsGP
Order on iTunes: http://geni.us/sumerlandsiT
Order on Amazon: http://geni.us/sumerlandsAMZ
Official links:
Sumerlands on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sumerlands
Sumerlands on Bandcamp: http://sumerlands.bandcamp.com
http://www.relapse.com
http://www.facebook.com/relapserecords
http://www.relapserecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/relapserecords
Lyrics:
l'll never have to wonder if you ever cared
Even when there’s no one, a part of you is there
I'm never lonely and this I still believe
I'm not the only one here, I hope you never leave
If I'm feeling lost, I look to you as my guide
I'll never be forsaken, you're always by my side
Whenever I'm forsaken, always be there by my side
I know you're out there because I can feel your near
Like a shadow in the distance, you’re somewhere
Awaiting always to save me from myself
If I close my eyes, I see you waiting there to help
Someone watch over me, someone maybe you
Someone I never see, but still I reach out to
Someone watch over me, someone maybe you
Someone I never see, but still I reach out to
Someone, is it you

Sumerlands is a music geek’s love letter to late ’80s American metal, written to mimic that style but without the imperative to stick closer to radio-friendliness. It’s got that Fates Warning, Queensryche thing going on, which were some of my entry points into the genre. I think the album is great, but what I’m not certain of is if there’s a band-sustaining theme there, or if this is just better as a one-off.

Gatecreeper - Sonoran Depravation

GATECREEPER - "Desperation" (Official Music Video) from 'Sonoran Depravation' out now on CD/LP/Digital via Relapse Records. Order Here: http://bit.ly/gatecreeper
Subscribe to Relapse: http://bit.ly/RelapseYouTube
Order on Bandcamp: http://gatecreeper.bandcamp.com/
Order on Google Play: http://geni.us/gatecreeperGP
Order on iTunes: http://geni.us/gatecreeperiT
Order on Amazon: http://geni.us/gatecreeperAMZ
Video by Dillon Vaughn: http://dillonv.com
Produced by Michelle Sheydayi
Starring Keir Gilchrist and Phil W.
Special thanks to Club Congress and Five Star Video
Official links:
Gatecreeper on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gatecreeper
Gatecreeper on Bandcamp: http://gatecreeper.bandcamp.com/
http://www.relapse.com
http://www.facebook.com/relapserecords
http://www.relapserecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.twitter.com/relapserecords
http://www.instagram.com/relapserecords

Apparently retro is in, because here’s another one. For Gatecreeper, it’s classic Swedish, maxed-out-HM-2-pedal death metal. Sonoran Deprevation is their debut full-length, and at just under 31 minutes, it’s a lean and dialed-in assault. There’s no fat here, just a straight-ahead riff delivery device. Not a lot in terms of originality, but it stands out for just how well it does what it does, and for how directly it achieves it. That economy makes this a great one to throw down for some immediate, unencumbered ass-kicking.

BABYMETAL - METAL RESISTANCE

New Album "METAL RESISTANCE” iTunes pre-order begins!
BABYMETAL’s New Album 「METAL RESISTANCE」 will be released simultaneously worldwide on “FOX DAY” Apr-1st, 2016(fri) .
Pre-order your copy from iTunes now!!
New song “KARATE" is currently available digitally!!
https://itunes.apple.com/artist/babymetal/id477101776?app=itunes&ls=1
BABYMETAL Official Website
http://www.babymetal.jp/
BABYMETAL Official Twitter
https://twitter.com/BABYMETAL_JAPAN
BABYMETAL Official Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/BABYMETAL.jp
BABYMETAL Official Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/babymetal_official/

The “metal” in BABYMETAL faded pretty hard over the course of their debut album after a strong start, which made me wonder if the band was ultimately going to just be J-Pop with distorted guitars going forward. Instead, they doubled-down on metal for the second record, pulling in power metal and djent and stomping on the gas pedal. This time around, only one song in the second half really dials down the metal (“No Rain, No Rainbow”), but it is bracketed on each side with balls-to-the-wall \m/ \m/. In the end, it is still a tad gimmicky, and the band (while good) is mainly notable for meshing disparate sounds and styles together more so than crafting new ones, but it’s a fun album that doesn’t lose its edge halfway through like the debut (and is also, wisely, a tad shorter at 53 minutes).

Borknagar’s 2012 album Urd was like their version of Kurt Warner’s Super Bowl season with the Arizona Cardinals - a recapturing of quality the band had enjoyed during their previous peak (which I would argue was the 98-00 period with The Archaic Course and Quintessence albums). It was a tall order to expect them to maintain that level, and unsurprisingly, they fall a bit short here. But the album is notable in that it’s a getting-the-singers-all-back-together effort, with vocalist Garm joining Vintersorg, ICS Vortex, and Lars Nedland, albeit in a guest capacity on a couple of tracks. Stylistically, this doesn’t deviate much from Urd, outside of not being quite as consistently good. Leaving a couple of tracks from the 50 minute running length on the cutting room floor would have helped the rest of the material stand out.

Huh? I left the SQL log line in the output here so we can see that our hstore field is indeed left out of the SQL INSERT statement entirely, which explains why the field is nil once we re-fetch the object from the database.

But why is it doing this? It turns out that, in Rails 4.0 and 4.1, this operation doesn’t mark the field as “dirty” in ActiveRecord, so the change is not detected and included in the save operation.

The documentation states that attr_name_will_change! should be called before changes to the attribute, as seen in the example above.

Doesn’t this seem like a pain? Well, as discussed in Rails issue #6127, it was expected behavior for Rails 4.0 and 4.1, but improvements to serialized attributes have been merged into Rails and will appear in Rails 4.2. Setting values and calling save will just work.

So, in the meantime, the workaround is manually marking properties as dirty with attr_data_will_change! before making and saving changes to those fields.

Having used activerecord-postgres-hstore before native hstore support was added to Rails 4, I was used to the behavior of empty hstore fields returning an empty hash {} when a row with such a field was instantiated into an ActiveRecord object, as was discussed and added in the gem’s issue #22.

This behavior changed in Rails 4’s hstore support. An ActiveRecord object with an empty hstore field will return nil for that field rather than an empty hash. (When someone opened a bug in the Rails repo to suggest implementing the same behavior in the new native hstore support, it was brushed off.)

By default, that leaves us to have to nil-check every hstore property in our objects before accessing any keys (eg. @myobj.data && @myobj.data['mykey']). However, we can get our “empty” hstore fields instantiating as empty hashes instead of nil with a tweak of our migration.

Simply add default: '', null: false to the migration, eg.

classAddDataToThings<ActiveRecord::Migration

defchange

add_column:things,:data,:hstore,default: ‘’,null: false

end

end

With that default in place, our empty hstore fields will instantiate as empty hashes, and we can avoid the nil check:

tl;dr: Supercharge your Caps Lock key by making it Esc when tapped, and Ctrl when held

Caps Lock. A useless key sitting in prime keyboard real estate. Many software developers and power users repurpose the key by remapping it to Control.

After all, on old UNIX terminals, that’s exactly what the key to the left of “A” was:

Replacing the Caps Lock key with Ctrl makes a lot of keyboard shortcuts more convenient. But we need not stop there. Some true Men and Women of Genius came to the realization that, since Ctrl’s behavior is based around behind held down (a modifier key) and doesn’t do anything when pressed and released, it is possible to make Caps Lock do something else when tapped instead of held. For Vim users, the obvious choice is the Esc key.

We can do this in both Mac OS X and Linux.

OS X

If you want all Ctrl keys to behave like Esc when tapped

This is the easiest way, and the option I use. (I rarely find myself hitting the normal Ctrl keys anyway.)

First, open System Preferences -> Keyboard, and click Modifier Keys button. Click the Caps Lock drop-down and set it to Control:

Now, install Karabiner (formerly known as KeyRemap4MacBook). If you are a Homebrew user, you should check out Homebrew Cask and install Karabiner with $ brew cask install karabiner

Open Karabiner. Enable the first setting from the screenshot below:

The other option I have there, “Disable Escape Key”, is something I’ve done just to get myself in the habit of using the Caps Lock key for Esc. It is not required, it is just an option if you want to help train yourself to use the new key.

If you only want the Caps Lock key to behave like Esc when tapped

To do this, we’re going to take a slightly different approach. Instead of using OS X’s native Caps Lock remapping, we need to use another app, called Seil (from the same developer as Karabiner) to remap the Esc key to F19, and then use Karabiner to map F19 to our cool Ctrl/Esc hybrid key.

Install both Karabiner and Seil. (Here again, if you use Homebrew Cask, you can do this with $ brew cask install karabiner and $ brew cask install seil)

Open Seil. First, enable the “Change Caps Lock” option, and set the keycode to 80:

Next, in Karabiner, enable the “F19 for Escape and Control” option:

Linux

To accomplish the same setup in Linux, we need to use a tool called xcape.

Build and install xcape per the instructions on the project’s Wiki page. One additional step I take after building the app is copying the xcape executable to /usr/local/bin.

If you only want the Caps Lock key to behave like Esc when tapped

Add the following lines to your ~/.profile:
~/.profile

setxkbmap -option ‘caps:ctrl_modifier’

xcape -e ‘Caps_Lock=Escape’

If you want all Ctrl keys to behave like Esc when tapped

Same as above, except we add more arguments to the xcape line:

~/.profile

setxkbmap -option ‘caps:ctrl_modifier’

xcape -e ‘Caps_Lock=Escape;Control_L=Escape;Control_R=Escape’

Note: If you use some other method of remapping the Caps Lock key to Ctrl (some desktop environments have it as an option in their Keyboard settings, much like OS X), then the Caps_Lock=Escape mapping may not do anything, and you will need to use the Control_L one.

One last little tidbit: Ubuntu 14.10 (“Utopic”) has xcape in the universe repos, at least as of the time of this writing. Hopefully it will be included in Ubuntu releases from here on out.

Now Your Caps Lock Key Rules

The most useless key on the keyboard (except maybe for Pause, when’s the last time you used that?) is now your Swiss Army knife. Vim’s keybindings will make a lot more sense now that you can use your pinky the way Bill Joy did on his old ADM3A terminal:

Haml is great. Haml is the JSON to HTML’s XML: all of the garbage and noise stripped away, with only the data and minimal amount of ceremony left.

I use Haml on all Rails projects now, but when dealing with legacy projects, I still encounter HTML/ERb templates.

Using the html2haml command-line tool, I can easily convert HTML/ERb in my Vim buffer into Haml.

The project distributes as a Ruby gem, so installing is accomplished with:

$ gem install html2haml

Then, the magic is done with some Vim bindings to feed a buffer or visually-selected chunk of text to the application, and paste its output back into the buffer, replacing the original text.

nmap <leader>h:%!html2haml –erb 2>/dev/null<CR>:set ft=haml<CR>

vmap <leader>h:!html2haml –erb 2>/dev/null<CR>

When changing the entire file, I’ve also added the command to change the filetype in the Vim buffer, for convenience.

That takes us from HTML/ERb to Haml, but what if we need to go back in the other direction? This is possible with the haml2erb tool. Unfortunately, this tool is not actively maintained the way html2haml is. For me, on Ruby 2.1.1, it was necessary to install the 0.3.0 prerelease version, as the last official version would not build. Once installed, though, it worked as expected.

We must explicitly indicate which version to install in order to install prerelease gems:

$ gem install haml2erb -v ‘0.3.0.pre.3’

The Vim bindings are much the same as the html2haml ones:

nmap <leader>e:%!haml2erb 2>/dev/null<CR>:set ft=eruby<CR>

vmap <leader>e:!haml2erb 2>/dev/null<CR>

I have not used this nearly as much as html2haml, as I’m rarely changing layout code from Haml back into HTML. However, the couple of times I have needed to do it, it has worked exactly as expected..

If I recall correctly, what happened originally is that I was attempting to get rid of the “/blog/” part of the archive path, but got distracted halfway through and left it incomplete.

For reference: this part of the archive path is not a user-configurable part of Octopress per se. It is a default location for a file in Jekyll, which is in source/blog/archive in an Octopress site repository. Simply moving the archive/ folder out of blog/ and into the top level of source/ will make the archive page generate without the “/blog/” part of the page. (For further reference, see the workaround post on the issue on Github)

I have a couple of functions in my .vimrc for manipulating Ruby hashes.

The first one is to convert hashes from Ruby 1.8 style into Ruby 1.9+ style, eg.

# before

:symbol_key=>‘value’

# after

symbol_key: ‘value’

I create this function for both Normal and Visual modes to allow updating either a selected hash, or the entire file.

function! RubyHashesAll()

:%s/:([^ ])(\s)=>/\1:/ge

endfunction

function! RubyHashesSelected()

:‘<,’>s/:([^ ])(\s)=>/\1:/ge

endfunction

nmap <Leader>rhh :call RubyHashesAll()<CR>

vmap <Leader>rhh :call RubyHashesSelected()<CR>

Next, I have one for taking a hash and extracting an array of the hash keys.

# before

{‘one’=>two,:three=>‘four’,five: 6}

# after

[‘one’,:three,:five]

Here, I have the command bound only in Visual mode, as I don’t see a case where I’d want to do this globally.

function! RubyExtractHashKeys()

:‘<,’>s/([:‘“]\?[a-zA-Z]+[’”]\?)\s=>[^,}]+([,}])/\1\2/ge

:‘<,’>s/([a-zA-Z]+)[:]\s[^,}]+([,}])/:\1\2/ge

:‘<,’>s/{\s/\[/ge

:‘<,’>s/\s}/\]/ge

endfunction

vmap <Leader>rhe :call RubyExtractHashKeys()<CR>

The regexes can probably be improved to fix some edge cases, and I’m certain there’s a way in Vim to make it so that I don’t have to define the All and Selected versions of RubyHashes as separate functions. But these do the job for me now, until I reach a higher plane of Vim mastery.